October 13, 2007

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) crowned champions in five individual flights (three singles and two doubles) Saturday at the Conference women’s tennis Individual Flighted Tournament. The Conference also announced the 2007 IIAC women’s All-Conference Team. The Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year will be announced following the completion of next weekend’s Team Tournament.

Flight A singles saw four Coe players in the semifinals with top-seed and two-time defending Iowa Conference MVP Molly Fiala defeating Andrea Schupbach, her regular doubles partner, and No. 2-seed Hannah Jensen defeating Hillary Allen by identical 6-2, 6-0 scores. Fiala defeated Jensen 7-5, 6-2 to capture her second individual singles title in three years, while Schupbach defeated Allen 6-3, 6-0 for third place.

Three Luther players and a Central player comprised the semifinal field in Flight B singles. Luther’s Justine Allen defeated teammate Laura Williams 6-1, 6-2 in one semifinal, while Luther’s Sara Dale needed three sets to move past Central’s Steph Gibbons 3-6, 6-2, 11-9. Allen, last year’s champion at No. 6 singles, picked up her second individual singles title in as many years by topping Dale 6-3, 6-1. Gibbons defeated Williams 8-4 in the third-place match.

Flight C singles was an all-Dubuque final with Rachel Sarafin defeating Andrea Gallo 6-4, 6-2 to give the Spartans their first-ever Conference individual champion. In the semifinals, Sarafin defeated Simpson’s Jill Berner 6-2, 6-2, while Gallo topped Buena Vista’s Katie Anliker by a 6-4, 6-3 score. Berner took third place with an 8-0 win over Anliker.

In Flight A doubles, Molly Fiala and Andrea Schupbach topped teammates Hillary Allen and Hannah Jensen 9-7 in an all-Coe Championship match. It is Fiala’s second doubles title in three years. In a great display of tennis on both sides, Fiala and Schupbach overcame a 7-2 deficit to capture the title. Fiala and Schupbach reached the final after posting an 8-5 victory over Cornell’s Pavla Brachova and Caryl Abeyta, while Allen and Jensen edged Luther’s Kelsie Allen and Amy Christenson 9-7 in the other semifinal. Brachova/Abeyta topped Allen/Christenson 8-2 in the third place match.

Luther’s Justine Allen and Fran Fairfield captured the Flight B doubles crown with an 8-1 win over Simpson’s Alissa Nance and Jackie Suckow. Nance and Suckow defeated Dubuque’s Rachel Sarafin and Lindsay Bonnell 8-4 in one semifinal, while Allen and Fairfield topped Cornell’s Kristin Willard and Becky Birkhofer 8-2 in the other. The Dubuque tandem captured third place when the Cornell duo was forced to retire from the match due to an injury.

Complete results from the two-day Individual Flighted Tournament are here.

All-Conference: The quarterfinalists in Flight A singles and the semifinalists in Flight A doubles are recognized as All-Conference. The 2007 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women’s tennis All-Conference Team are here.

The IIAC Women’s Tennis Team Tournament will be contested October 19-20 at the University of Iowa Tennis Courts. The six-team tournament, which will be seeded by a vote of the coaches, will crown the 2007 IIAC Women’s Tennis Champion.

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