April 29, 2008

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today that Coe College senior Tom Jennings (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley) has been named 2008 IIAC Men’s Tennis Most Valuable Player and Luther College head coach Brian Huinker has been named 2008 IIAC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year.

Jennings finished the year with a 45-15 overall record, including a 24-5 record in singles. He captured individual titles at A Singles and A Doubles (w/ Scott Stegemann) and led Coe to a runner-up finish at the 2008 Iowa Conference Championships. He is tops among Conference players with 15 or more singles decisions with a .828 winning percentage. He teamed with Stegemann to post a 21-10 doubles record. Their .677 winning percentage ranked fourth in the IIAC among doubles tandems with 15 or more decisions.

Seeded eighth in the A Singles draw at the Conference Individual Championships, Jennings outlasted Luther’s Tim Eisele 6-1, 2-6, 1-0 (5) in the final to capture the title. He then added the gold medal in A Doubles as he and Stegemann posted an 8-6 win over Luther’s Jono Martin and Scott Martin in the final. Jennings and Stegemann were not seeded. Jennings is the first player since Coe’s Nick Frank (2003) to capture titles in the top flight of both singles and doubles in the same year.

Jennings is the fourth different Coe men’s tennis player to be named IIAC Men’s Tennis MVP, joining Johnny Watson (1999-2001), Nick Barnes (2002-2004), and Ryan Yao (2005).

Huinker received Coach of the Year honors for the third consecutive year and the fourth time since 2002. He led the Norse to its Conference-record 28th men’s tennis Championship, their second in as many years. Luther, which received the IIAC’s automatic berth, enters its second consecutive NCAA Tournament with a 29-9 overall record. Huinker coached three runners-up in the Conference Individual Tournament.

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