April 30, 2009

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . Luther College won its third consecutive Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) men’s tennis title with a 5-4 win over Coe College in the Championship match at the Clark Racquet Center in Cedar Rapids Thursday. It is the Conference-record 29th league title for the Norse in men’s tennis.

Luther, the Tournament’s top seed, improved to 36-5 on the season with a semifinal win over Wartburg College (5-0) and the Championship win over Coe, the seventh time in eight years the two teams have met in the final match. After dropping two of three doubles matches to Coe, the Norse received wins at No. 1, No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6 singles to clinch the win at 5-4. For the second straight year, a win by Harrison Whiteley secured the title. Whiteley outlasted Victor Khristenko 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Second-seeded Coe fell to 18-5.

With the win, Luther earns the Iowa Conference’s automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament which begins May 8 at eight regional sites nationwide.

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

The complete match-by-match results from the Iowa Conference Men’s Tennis Team Tournament can be found here.

The IIAC Men’s Tennis Championship continues Friday and Saturday (May 1-2) with the Flighted Individual 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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