Gophers ready to play badgers in border battle

Tennis | 07/04/2022 10:30:00
The University of Minnesota tennis team will play its second straight road game on Saturday when it takes on the Badgers in Madison. They will play a single match at the weekend for the first time this season. Minnesota’s game against Wisconsin will be their sixth ranked competition of the Big Ten season, as Wisconsin comes in at 47th in this week’s ITA poll. Minnesota remains ranked for the seventh consecutive week, as it ranks 61st in the ITA’s top 75 this week.
The Gophers will face the Badgers at 12:00 p.m. at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. They will be aiming for their fourth ranked win of the season and surpass their 14 total wins in 2018 and 2019. Minnesota will look to move up the Big Ten standings with a victory over the fifth-place Wisconsin Badgers.
Minnesota won last year’s meeting in Minneapolis and have won four of the last five meetings. They will be looking for their first victory in Madison since 2016.
Previous game
Minnesota played a split weekend at home and on the road against Rutgers and Maryland. On Friday, they hosted the Scarlet Knights in a convincing 7-0 win. The Gophers swept doubles and singles and earned their third Big Ten victory of the season. The game was their 14th win of the year, matching win totals from 2018 and 2019. On Sunday, they traveled to College Park for a contest with the Maryland Terrapins. After the doubles point went to the Gophers, Maryland won four of six singles points, edging out Minnesota for its tenth home win of the season. They went undefeated at home that year as the Gophers fell to 3-5 in the Big Ten, 14-7 overall.
The competition
Wisconsin is 12-7 this season, 4-2 in Big Ten games. The Badgers have conference wins over Rutgers, Maryland, Illinois and Michigan State, and are 4-1 in games played at Madison. Their struggles have come in neutral games, where they are 1-4 on the season. Minnesota won the last meeting of the two teams on the Gophers’ senior day, a 5-2 win at Minneapolis. Wisconsin leads the all-time series as Saturday’s ranked game gives Minnesota an opportunity to close the gap.
How to follow
Live streaming and stats from Saturday’s game will be available through Wisconsin Athletics, along with updates on GopherWTennis Twitter. The summary and statistics will be displayed once the results are complete.