The rackets will be swinging this weekend as the ISU tennis team gets its first action of the fall at the Gopher Invitational in Minneapolis.

With the amount of doubles and singles matches this weekend, everyone is expected to play except freshman Anna Garcia, who is battling an injury. The main focus will be on doubles matches, but singles will be monitored as well.

“We’ve been practicing a lot of doubles, so I feel like that’s what we’ll be focusing on,” said senior Meghan Cassens. “We struggled with that a lot last year.”  

With a new rule in effect this year that limits the number of doubles matches from four to three, doubles are crucial to win this season and the focus will be on winning those essential matches.

Garcia has been dealing with a back injury and will not be playing this weekend, but she will still be making the trip to Minneapolis with her team.

“I didn’t practice this week, but I’m excited to go to Minnesota this weekend to see the level of play and cheer on the girls,” Garcia said.

Garcia is meeting with the trainers on a daily basis to check on her progress and she hopes to practice after this weekend after having a week to rest.  

Seniors Cassens, Caroline Hauge Andersen and Ksenia Pronina are looking forward to leading the team in their senior year. The three seniors have been playing together since freshman year, so the leadership is being spread evenly between all of them.

Head coach Armando Espinosa is not looking for results this weekend, but he wants his team to implement what they’ve learned throughout practice into a competitive environment.

“Our whole team has pretty good chemistry this year, so that’s nice,” Cassens said.  

Since practices have been going well, the team’s confidence is high and it hopes that carries into the invitational this weekend.

The ISU tennis team will be playing against University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, University of Kentucky, University of South Dakota, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, South Dakota State University, Eastern Michigan University, Drake University, University of Wisconsin, University of North Dakota and host team University of Minnesota. 

The first match for the ISU tennis team will be at 9 a.m Sept. 19 in Minneapolis.