April 24, 2008

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . Luther College won its second consecutive Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) men’s tennis title with a 5-1 win over Coe College in the Championship match at the Westfield Tennis Club in Cedar Rapids Thursday. It is the Conference-record 28th league title for the Norse in men’s tennis.

Luther, the Tournament’s top seed, improved to 29-9 on the season with a semifinal win over Cornell College (5-0) and the Championship win over Coe, the sixth time in seven years the two teams have met in the final match. After taking two of three doubles matches from Coe, the Norse received wins at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 6 singles to clinch the win at 5-1. The title was secured by Harrison Whiteley with his 6-0, 7-5 win over Greg Janssen at No. 3 singles. Second-seeded Coe fell to 15-10.

With the win, Luther earns the Iowa Conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament which begins May 2 at eight regional sites nationwide.

Central College defeated Cornell College in the third-place match (5-0) and University of Dubuque defeated Wartburg College in the fifth-place match (5-3). Central defeated No. 6 Wartburg, 5-1, and Cornell defeated No. 4 Dubuque by a 5-2 margin in first-round matches. All seven matches went according to seed.

The complete match-by-match results from the Iowa Conference Men’s Tennis Team Tournament follow this release.

The IIAC men’s tennis Championship continues Friday and Saturday (April 25-26) with the Individual Flighted Tournament beginning with singles matches at 8:30 a.m. at Coe College (Flight A) and Veterans Park (Flights B and C). Any schedule changes necessitated by weather will be posted on the Iowa Conference web site (www.iowaconference.com) once they become available. Brackets for the three singles flights and two doubles flights can be found here.

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