April 24, 2003

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . Coe College won its third straight Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) men’s tennis Championship on Thursday with a 4-0 victory over Luther College in the Championship match of the Dual Team Tournament portion of the three-day Conference Championship.

Coe, the Tournament’s top seed went 3-0 on the day and improved to 23-2 on the season including a 23-0 record against Division III opponents. Luther was seeded second in the Tournament and finished the season with a 19-9 record after a 2-1 day at the Tournament.

Due to expected inclement weather, with the exception of the Coe/Luther Championship match, singles matches were played first and played until one team won four matches. Doubles matches were played if singles ended 3-3.

In the Championship match, Coe won two of the three doubles matches including an 8-2 victory at #1 doubles by Nick Barnes and Nick Frank, and an 8-1 victory at #2 doubles by Phil Williams and Lucas Elliott. Number three doubles between Coe’s Adam Elliott/Chris McGrath and Luther’s Adam Strand/Randy Mack was not completed. Coe received singles victories from Barnes (#1, 6-0, 6-1 over Marcin Niewiadomski), Adam Elliott (#4, 6-4, 6-1 over Adam Strand), and Andrew Mikkila (#5, 6-4, 6-3 over Pete Tass). Frank and Luther’s Arvid von Taube (#2 singles), Coe’s Phil Williams and Luther’s Erik Guffy (#3 singles), and Coe’s Jeff White and Mack (#6 singles) did not finish their respective singles matches.

En route to its Championship, Coe posted 4-0 victories over #8 Buena Vista University and #4 Simpson College in addition to its victory over Luther. The Norse defeated #7 Loras College (4-0) and #3 Central College (5-0) before falling in the finals.

In other place matches, Central defeated Simpson, 4-1, in the third place match, #6 Cornell recorded the lone upset of the Tournament with a 4-3 victory over #5 Wartburg in the fifth place match, and Loras defeated Buena Vista, 4-0 in the seventh place match. The complete match-by-match results from the IIAC men’s tennis Team Championship are here.

The Conference men’s tennis Championship continues Friday and Saturday, April 25-26, with the Individual Flighted Tournament beginning at 8:00 a.m. at Veterans Park and 8:15 a.m. at Clark Racquet Center in Cedar Rapids. Brackets for the three singles flights and two doubles flights are here.

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