The UNI women’s tennis team traveled to Minneapolis, Minn., to compete in the Gopher Invite from Sept. 15-17. The competition featured North Dakota, South Dakota, Saint Thomas, Marquette, Omaha and host school Minnesota. UNI had several strong performances, highlighted by Andrijana Brkic going undefeated in singles play.

The format of the event featured two rounds of doubles matches for each pair of players and a singles match for each individual player on each of the three days. On Friday, Sept. 15, UNI finished with a winning record in singles matches, but struggled to a 0-6 record in doubles matches, although Lorena Cardoso and Darta Dalecka came close to earning a win in a tight 7-6 loss. Singles play would prove to be much more positive, as four Panthers won. Brkic won in sets of 6-2 and 6-0 to pick up her first win. Dalecka, Issa Sullivan and Kim Zizek also won in two sets each, getting UNI to four wins. Cardoso, Kanyanut Sudsaard and Lasya Mylavarapu did not pick up wins on day one, but UNI still finished with a 4-3 singles record.

Saturday saw UNI improve in double play. Brkic and Zizek dropped their first match but won the second 7-6. Sullivan and Mylavarapu won both their matches with scores of 6-3 and 6-2. Though UNI dropped the other two matches, they finished 3-3 in doubles play. Brkic followed up her big win from the day before with an even more dominant performance, winning in sets of 6-1 and 6-0. Sullivan also won her second in a row. Sudsaard bounced back from an opening day defeat with a hard-fought win to help UNI finish 3-4 in singles play for the day.

On Sunday, Dalecka and Cardoso were the only UNI pair to win a doubles match, winning 6-2. In singles, there were several injuries and withdrawals by some of UNI’s opponents. Brkic dropped her first set 6-4, but bounced back with wins of 6-4 and 6-3 to win and finish unbeaten in the event.

UNI’s next event is the Bulldog Classic, hosted by Drake. The games will be from Friday, Sept. 22, to Sunday, Sept. 24, in Des Moines.