April 22, 2012

2012 Big Ten tournament

The Big Ten Conference announced the seedings and pairings for the 2012 Men’s Tennis Tournament tonight. The Gophers, who finished the season 13-6 overall and 8-3 in the Big Ten, earned the fourth seed.

Ohio State, which went 11-0 in the Big Ten is seeded first, while Michigan (9-2 in the Big Ten) is seeded second and Illinois (8-3 in the Big Ten) is seeded third.  Illinois won the tiebreaker with Minnesota for the third seed because the Illini beat the Gophers 4-2 at home earlier this year. The top four seeds in the tournament receive first-round byes and begin play in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Minnesota will play the winner of first-round match between fifth-seeded Indiana and No. 12 seed Iowa at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, April 27. The Gophers won 4-3 on the road at Indiana on April 14 and beat Iowa 6-1 on the road on April 22.

The Gophers advanced to the Big Ten tournament final a year ago where they lost to eventual champion Ohio State.

The tournament is scheduled to begin on Thursday, with first-round matches taking place at 9:30 a.m. at Northwestern’s Vandy Christie Tennis Center. Friday’s quarterfinal matches begin at 9:30 a.m., while Saturday will showcase the tournament semifinals starting at 9:30 a.m. Sunday’s championship match is scheduled for Noon. BTN will air the championship match on Thursday, May 10, at 5 p.m.