May 9, 2009

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today that Luther College freshman Scott Sundstrom (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) has been named 2009 IIAC Men’s Tennis Most Valuable Player and Luther College head coach Brian Huinker has been named 2009 IIAC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year.

Sundstrom enters Luther's second round NCAA Tournament match with a 37-13 overall record, including a 23-6 record in singles. He captured the individual title at A Singles and led Luther to the 2009 Iowa Conference Championship. Among Conference players with 15 or more singles decisions, he ranked fifth with a .793 winning percentage.

The top seed in the A Singles draw at the Conference Individual Championships, Sundstrom defeated teammate Harrison Whiteley 6-1, 6-0 in the final to capture the title. It is the 21st time since 1966 that a Luther player has captured the top singles title at the league meet and the third since 2006.

Sundstrom is the ninth different Luther men's tennis player to be named IIAC Men's Tennis MVP, joining Rolf Wulfsberg (1969), Bob Frost (1971, 73-74), Jeff Renken (1975-76), Tom Wolfe (1987), Sujay Lama (1989-92), Chris Rovn (1993, 1995), Christian Klein (2006), and Maxwell Busch (2007).

Huinker received Coach of the Year honors for the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time since 2002. He led the Norse to its Conference-record 29th men’s tennis championship, their third in as many years. Luther, which received the IIAC’s automatic berth, entered its third consecutive NCAA Tournament Friday and is 37-5 following a 5-0 opening-round win over Concordia (Wis.). Huinker's squad earned five all-conference honors in singles and two in doubles and also coached champions at C Singles and B Doubles and runners-up at all five flights.

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