The women’s tennis team has earned a spot in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Team Tournament after finishing the regular season with a record of 7-9 overall record and a 5-4 mark within the IIAC.

The top six teams in the conference will compete in the team tournament, which is to be held Friday and Saturday of this weekend in Iowa City.

As chosen by a vote of the IIAC coaches, Simpson was selected as the number five seed. They will face the number four seed Wartburg in the first round on Friday at 6 p.m.

Last weekend, the Storm participated in the IIAC Individual/Doubles Tournament held in Cedar Rapids, but crowned no individual or doubles champion. Freshman Jill Berner was the highest individual finisher for the Storm, as she advanced to the semifinals of the Flight “C” singles bracket before being defeated. In doubles, sophomore Alissa Nance and junior Jackie Suckow advanced to the finals of the “B” Flight bracket before falling to a duo from Luther.

As the team headed into the tournament for individuals and doubles this past weekend, the women looked to continue their hot streak.

“We have a lot of confidence heading into this weekend because we’ve played really well against some of the best teams,” junior Jess Nims said.

Bob Nutgrass, head women’s tennis coach, said that the team has had some difficult opponents during the last part of the season. Nutgrass also said the team has a lot of confidence heading into the tournament.

“Our confidence is very high,” Nutgrass said. “We have had some tough matches against our last two opponents, but the women know that competing hard, focus[ing} on every point, hard work and a the desire to improve will help them in the tournament.”

In preparation for the tournament, members of the team said they were trying to practice hard while at the same time trying not to burn themselves out.

“We have really been working hard on our entire game in practices,” junior Gwen Kingsbury said. “We’re trying to round everything out before the tournament. We have worked more on our mental focus to prepare us for the end of the season.”

Nutgrass said the team has been doing a little extra work to prepare themselves for the tournament.

“We are trying to stay at a top level of performance without burning out the last two weeks,” Nutgrass said. “Right now we’re resting some but trying to do more with strength training and conditioning at the beginning of each week.”

After last weekend, the Storm thought they played well but still have some work to do before heading to Iowa City.

“I felt we did well,” Nims said. “We competed well with Coe and Luther, by far the best two teams in the conference; but we still need to be more confident and believe in ourselves.”