The 22nd-ranked Gophers softball team completed a three-game sweep of Purdue with a 4-3 victory in West Lafayette, Ind., in their first Big Ten series of the season.

Sara Groenewegen hit a leadoff homer in the second and pitched the final two innings in relief of winner Nikki Anderson (4-2), who worked around Gophers' errors and allowed one unearned run in five innings. Groenewegen struck out five, fanning the side in the bottom of the seventh on only 10 pitches.

The Gophers (22-9, 3-0) play next weekend at Northwestern.

U drops Hawkeyes in women's tennis

Caroline Ryba won at No. 1 singles and teamed with Julia Courter to win the decisive doubles point for the Gophers women's tennis team in a 4-3 victory over Iowa in Iowa City.

The Gophers (11-7, 3-2 Big Ten) split six singles matches and secured the victory when Jessika Mozia won 7-6, 6-4, over Iowa's Annette Dohanics at No. 4.

• The Gophers men's tennis team lost 4-1 to the host Hawkeyes, with Matic Spec grabbing the only point with a 7-5, 6-0 victory over Lefteris Theodorou.

Gophers divers fifth, ninth on platform

Senior Manny Pollard of the Gophers placed fifth and junior Matt Barnard ninth in platform diving at the NCAA swimming and diving championships on Saturday in Atlanta. As a team, the Gophers placed 20th with 41 points.

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