October 13, 2006

CEDAR RAPIDS , IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) crowned doubles champions and played through the quarterfinals in singles at the Individual Tournament of the Conference’s women’s tennis Championship.

Luther won two of three doubles flights, Central finished second in all three flights, and the teams are tied for the lead in the Conference Tournament after doubles play with 24 points apiece. Luther’s #2 doubles team of Heidi Bothun and Molly Beyer and #3 doubles team of Amy Christenson and Kelsie Allen won their respective flights Championship matches by 8-5 and 8-4 scores. Cornell’s team of Pavla Brachova and Emily Loewen won the #1 doubles title, 8-4, to help the Rams to a third-place standing (20 points) after doubles. All three titlists were the top seed in their flight.

Central’s Kristin Kovar/Jennifer Knobbe, Hillary Baehr/Katie Moklestad and Faith Bliss/Maureen Khairallah finished second at #1, #2 and #3, respectively. Kovar/Knobbe and Bliss/Khairallah were the #2 seeds while Baehr/Moklestad, the #7-seed, upset #2 seed Emily Heying/Sara Bickford of Wartburg in the quarterfinals.

Finalists in #1 doubles and champions in #2 and #3 doubles are deemed All-Conference. Brachova, Kovar, Beyer and Christenson earned their second All-Conference doubles honor. Brachova was runner-up at #1 in 2005, Kovar was runner-up at #1 in 2004, and Beyer and Christenson won #3 in 2005.

A first-place finish earns nine points for the players’ team, a second-place finish earns eight points…and a ninth-place finish earns one point. The top-four schools from this weekend’s Individual Tournament will play in the Team Tournament on Saturday, October 21.

The Individual Tournament concludes tomorrow at Veterans Memorial Park beginning at 10:00 a.m. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 singles will be on the courts first and completed followed by #4-5-6.

Complete doubles results along with singles play-in and quarterfinal round results are here.

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