Oct. 13, 2007

Central’s Gibbons takes third at league meet

CEDAR RAPIDS—Central College freshman Steph Gibbons (Ankeny) capped her best women’s tennis weekend with a third-place finish in the Iowa Conference B flight singles Saturday.  

After surging to the semifinals Friday, Gibbons was outlasted by Luther’s Sara Dale 3-6, 6-2, 11-9. But she came back to stop Luther’s Laura Williams 6-3, 6-1 for third place.

“She played her best five singles matches of the season,” coach Bryan Mours said. “In the semis she had chances to win. She had her guns blazing in the (third-place) final and had her best match in her college career.”

The league tourney is following a new format, with three singles flights and two doubles flights. The top 30 players are in the A flight with 25 players in the B flight and 29 in the C flight. In doubles the top 16 duos are in the A flight with 24 teams in the B flight.

All-conference honors go to all A flight singles quarterfinalists and A flight doubles semifinalists.

Gibbons was the only Central player in action Saturday. Two-time league MVP Molly Fiala of Coe College was the A flight singles champ while Fiala and Andrea Schupbach teamed to win the doubles crown.        

The individual tourney has no bearing on pairings for next weekend’s team tournament at the University of Iowa courts in Iowa City, which utilizes a dual meet format. Seeds for the six-team tournament will be announced Monday but will be based largely on the dual meet regular-season results. Central will likely carry the No. 3 seed after posting a 9-3 dual record with a 6-2 mark against league opponents. The Dutch are in line to draw a first-round match with Cornell College (7-7 overall, 3-4 against league opponents) Friday at 6 p.m. Central tripped the Rams 6-3 Sept. 1 at Mount Vernon.

The winner of that match takes on the No. 2 seed—likely to be Luther College (10-1) at 9 a.m. Saturday. Coe College (10-0) is the probable No. 1 seed and would also play at that time, taking on the winner of a Friday match between the fourth and fifth seeds, most likely Wartburg (7-4) and Simpson (7-8).

The fifth-place match is slated for 9 a.m. Saturday at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. The third-place and championship matches are set for noon Saturday in Iowa City.

"We have been playing exceptionally well and we will go and challenge to get in the championship next week,” Mours said. “It was good to play a number of tough matches this weekend because it helps set us up well for the competition next week.”