The women’s tennis team looked to use the momentum gained by beating conference rival Central College in the IIAC Team Tournament in the following week’s Individual Tournament.

The Storm defeated the Dutch 5-2 in the 5th place match in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 8. Simpson lost in the first round to Cornell College 5-1 on Friday, but turned it around on Saturday to earn a fifth place finish.

“The team played the best we had all year and had a great win against Central,” senior Lindsay Nash said.

Juniors Mikayla Struebing and Tiffany Bost won both singles matches in three sets. Struebing and sophomore Lauren Schemmel teamed up in doubles play to provide a win for the Storm. Rounding out the winners for the team were Nash and senior Lynae Gruber in the No. 3 doubles match winning by a score of 9-8.

Gruber said that the support of teammates is a major boost to performance.

“It helps with confidence and the ambition to win,” Gruber said.

The team’s performance led to a surprise fifth-place finish for the Storm.

“We were not expected to place above our six seed coming into the tournament,” Nash said. “We came off a loss to Central about a week and a half before the tournament and knew what we had to do to win the second time around.”

Chase considers the match against Central a positive note to end the season.

“I was thrilled with how the team came out against Central,” Chase said. “Getting the edge in doubles was a key to the team’s success heading into singles. Each of the girls gave their best effort and never gave up. It was a great way to end our season with a victory avenging a close loss from earlier in the season.”

A week after this competition the team had to turn its attention to the IIAC Individual Tournament in Cedar Rapids and remain confident.

“You have to go in thinking you are going to win no matter what,” Bost said.

Senior Allison Anderson had the standout performance for the Storm, winning four matches and finishing third in the Flight B singles bracket. Anderson defeated Luther’s Annie Whiteley 6-1, 6-7, 1-0 in the third place match.

“I think the top keys to Allison’s success this weekend were her mental toughness and competitiveness,” Chase said. “There were definitely times and moments it would have been easier for her to throw in the towel, but she didn’t. She stayed strong and fought every point and match to the end. She never gave up.”

Rounding out the winners in Flight B for Simpson was Tiffany Bost, who won her first match by a score of 8-2 over Cornell College’s Claudia Lansman. She later lost to Whiteley, falling 6-3, 6-2.

In doubles action the team of Gruber and Nash won the first match 8-5 but later lost the second by the same score. Hamilton and senior Ramie Vogt also won the first match 9-7, later losing in the second round by a score of 8-1.

The individual tournament marks the end of the season for the women’s tennis team.

“I think we have really improved this season and surprised a lot of opponents,” Gruber said. “We have worked very hard and I feel that we have made a tremendous amount of improvement since last season.”