Stephanie Gibbons Oct. 11, 2008

Central rally back from morning loss to top Cornell

IOWA CITY—After falling to top-seeded Coe College 5-0 in the morning, the fourth-seeded Central College women’s tennis squad bounced back to beat Cornell College 5-3 in the third-place match at the Iowa Conference tourney Saturday. Coe took over early against Central in the doubles matches. At No. 1 Faith Bliss (junior, Ottumwa) and Kayla Donner (freshman, Metamora, Ill.) lost 8-1 to Molly Fiala and Andrea Schupbach, at No. 2 Hilary Baehr (senior, Des Moines, Roosevelt HS) and Stephanie Gibbons (sophomore, Ankeny) fell 8-5 to Megan Fiala and Hillary Allen and at No. 3 Katie Williamson (sophomore, Pella) and Emily Swartz (freshman, Eldora, South Hardin HS) lost 8-2 to Hannah Jensen and Katy Delgardelle.

After sweeping doubles, Coe needed only two singles victory to close out the match. Schupbach beat Donner 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3 singles and Molly Fiala beat Baehr at No. 1 6-0, 6-2.

The loss to Coe meant that Central and third-seeded Cornell face off in the third-place match. The Rams had edged Central 5-4 at Pella Aug. 30.

“We knew it would be an uphill battle against Coe,” said Central head coach Bryan Mours. “We competed well, and then we had to guard against a let-down going into the second match, but Cornell had to do the same thing.”

Against Cornell, Bliss and Donner fell at No. 1 doubles 8-2 before Baehr and Gibbons put the Dutch on the board with an 8-3 win at No. 2. A Williamson and Swartz loss at No. 3 left Central trailing by one at the start of the singles.

-entral rallied to take four of five completed singles matches to grab the win. At No. 6 Swartz beat Emily Selindh 6-2, 6-4, at No. 5 Williamson beat Annabelle Milliken 7-5, 6-0, at No. 4 Gibbons beat Kendall Bielinski 6-4, 6-4 and at No. 2 Bliss beat Caryl Abeyta 6-4, 6-3.

“Hilary (Baehr) and Stephanie (Gibbons) came up really big for us all day long,” Mours said. “They played a great match against a very tough doubles team against Coe. Against Cornell their doubles victory kept us from having to win five of six singles matches.”

Central finishes the fall dual-meet season with a 10-8-1 record in addition to its third-place Iowa Conference finish. It is the 13th third-place finish for Central which has now finished in the top four 25 times in 28 years.

Central, Coe, Cornell and Luther advance to the league’s NCAA Automatic Qualifier Tournament in April to determine which team will advance to the NCAA Division III women’s tennis championship in May.

The Dutch close the fall season with the Iowa Conference individual tournament Friday and Saturday in Cedar Rapids.