co-eThe University of Minnesota men's and women's tennis teams placed ninth at the WingspanBank.com/WTT National Collegiate Tennis Championships in Stanford, Calif. The Golden Gophers, competing in a co-ed team format, finished the tournament with a 2-2 record.

Minnesota opened the tournament with a win against LSU. Michaela Havelkova defeated the Tigers' Fernando Tsucamoto 6-4 in women's singles, while the mixed doubles team of Harsh Mankad and Amy Thomas were victorious over Daniel Kiernan and Amy McIlhaney 6- 4. Mankad and Thomas claimed a 7-6 edge in the super tiebreaker to claim the team victory 28-27.

In the second round, Southern Cal defeated Minnesota by a score of 24- 23. The Golden Gophers claimed victories in just two matches as Thomas defeated Jewel Peterson 6-2 and Thomas and Havelkova outlasted Peterson and Tiffany Brymer in women's doubles 6-5.

In the third-round match, Clemson took an early 6-0 lead, but the Gophers tied the score at 12 after Minnesota's Thomas Haug defeated Josh Goffi (6-1) and Haug teamed with Harsh Mankad to defeat Goffi and Darren Knight (6-5). But Clemson won the final two matches to earn the team victory, 24-20.

The Gophers never trailed in the ninth-place match against Texas A&M, winning four of the five matches to take the team victory, 30-21.

The team tennis concept, originated by Billie Jean King and Larry King, features teams comprised of at least two men, two women and a coach. Each team match consists of five sets, with one set each of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. One point is awarded for each game won. A nine-point tiebreaker is played if a set reaches five all. If necessary, overtime and a "Supertiebreaker" are played to determine the outright winner of the match.