October 15, 2005

PELLA, IOWA . . . For the 23rd time in 24 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) women’s tennis Championships, Luther College took home the title. The top-seeded Norse defeated #2-seed Coe College in Saturday’s Championship match, 5-3.

Luther took two of three doubles points, both by 8-1 scores (Annalise Conaway/Tasha Allemang at #2, and Molly Beyer/Amy Christenson at #3) and won #3, #4 and #5 singles (Beyer, Allemang and Tara Huinker) to win its fourth straight title. The second-place finish is Coe’s highest since joining the IIAC in 1997. The Kohawks’ previous best finish was fourth-place in 2002 and 2003.

In the third-place match, #3 Cornell defeated #4 Central, 5-4. Cornell took #1 and #2 doubles, and #1, #3 and #5 singles. Two of Central’s three singles points came in three sets (Hillary Baehr at #2 and Becky Steenhoek at #4).

Luther defeated host Central College in one semifinal (5-1) and Coe defeated Cornell College in the other semifinal (5-0).

Complete match results are here.

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