Nick Rohner Feb. 2, 2008

Central notches first win

PELLA— Central College recorded its first men’s tennis victory under new coach Bryan Mours as the Dutch shut out Cornell College 9-0 before getting blanked by Graceland University 9-0 Saturday at H.S. Kuyper Fieldhouse.  

Mours liked his team’s effort.

“We played really well against Cornell in the morning,” he said. “Early in the season, it’s important for us to take care of business and win the matches we’re supposed to win.

“Graceland’s a top-20 team in the NAIA and I thought we played very well, even though it was 9-0,” Mours said. “The score didn’t show the type of competitive fire we played with. Nick Rohner (senior, Wichita, Kan., Kapaun Mt. Carmel HS) played probably his best college match (a 7-6, 7-5 loss at No. 3 singles) and we had some very good doubles matches as well. I was extremely pleased.”

Mours said he’s not concerned with Central’s 1-3 record.

“It’s my belief that if we’re going to build a nationally competitive program we need to play top-quality competition,” he said. “The record is important, but right now our conference record and how we finish in the conference tournament is the most important thing. We’re 1-3, but we’re 1-0 in the conference.”

The Dutch will stay on the practice courts for the next two weeks before another home triangular Saturday, Feb. 16. Central will play host to Monmouth College (Ill.) at 9 a.m., then take on Wartburg College at 3 p.m. Central defeated Monmouth at Pella last year 6-3 and took a pair of matches from Wartburg, winning 8-1 at Pella in March, then recording a 5-4 victory in the third-place match of the Iowa Conference tournament in Iowa City in April.

“We’ve got two weeks of good, solid practice now,” Mours said. “We have some time to continue to improve and to figure some things out lineup-wise.”