When the Blugolds took on Mankato State University (Minn.) last season, they won 5-4. The men’s tennis team is looking for a repeat of last year’s performance when it challenges Mankato Saturday at Mankato.

Sunday, the Blugolds will head to St. Peter, Minn. to face Gustavus Adolphus College.

“We don’t know too much about them (Mankato),” sophomore Ryan Gruhlke said. “We beat them last year, but it was close.”

The Blugolds are coming off a weekend in which they split two matches. Eau Claire dropped a match to Ripon College 4-3, but came back to win a match against Macalester College (Minn.) by a 5-2 margin.

The Mavericks also are coming into the match off a split weekend. Mankato experienced a 5-4 loss to St. Cloud University, (Minn.) but redeemed themselves with a 7-2 win over Winona State University (Minn.).

“They have pretty much all their guys back from last year,” junior Bob Yunker said. “We won last year, but we were really fortunate.”

The Mavericks enter the dual with a 4-7 meet record.

“Everyone is expecting to compete,” Yunker said. “Our doubles should do well, so should our top singles. We’re expecting to compete all the way down.”

The Blugolds will face Mankato at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Gustavus comes into the match off a successful California training trip.

“Last year they didn’t bring their full lineup,” Gruhlke said. “We still lost.”

In last year’s match-up, the Blugolds fell 7-0.

“They (Gustavus) are ranked second in the nation,” Yunker said. “They’re stacked up and down, they have 20 guys that compete at the top levels.”

During the trip they challenged and won against six teams from California.

Yunker said, “I think the lower players have a better chance at winning than our top do.”