Katie Williamson forehand Oct. 10, 2008

Central advances at league tournament

 IOWA CITY—The Central College women’s tennis squad took down Simpson College 6-2 Friday at the Iowa Conference tournament with help from sophomores Stephanie Gibbons (Ankeny) and Katie Williamson (Pella) who each won three-set matches. Gibbons win came at No. 4 singles over Alissa Nance 6-4, 6-0, 12-10 and Williams rallied back from one set down to beat Gwen Kingsbury at No. 5 4-6, 6-2, 11-9.

“Those were wins were huge for us,” said Central head coach Bryan Mours. “They really helped to seal the deal.

At No. 2 Faith Bliss (junior, Ottumwa) won 6-1, 6-1, at No. 3 Kayla Donner (freshman, Metamora, Ill.) fell 6-3, 7-5 and at No. 6 Emily Swartz (freshman, Eldora, South Hardin HS) won 6-2, 6-0. Hilary Baehr’s (senior, Des Moines, Roosevelt HS) match at No. 1 singles was stopped when Central earned the victory.

In doubles Bliss and Donner won at No. 1 8-4 and at No. 3 Williamson and Swartz won 8-3, while Baehr and Gibbons lost 8-6 at No. 2.

Earlier in the season, Central beat Simpson 5-4.

“We struggled against Simpson today,” said head coach Bryan Mours. “They came out and played loose which we didn’t do, but I don’t think we played as well as we should have.”

With the victory the Dutch will move on to play top-seeded Coe College on Saturday. Coe was the only team to post a perfect record against conference opponents this season and defeated Central 9-0 in its first match of the season.

“We’ve improved a lot since then and I’m sure they have too,” said Mours. “But we’re playing some really good tennis right now and everyone has a great attitude about the match.”

Central and Coe will square off at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Don Klotz Tennis Courts at the Hawkeye Tennis and Recreation Complex in Iowa City. Central was third in the 2007 league tourney and has finished in the top four of the conference in 24 of the 27 years of the tournament’s existence.