Central Women’s Tennis Opens Conference Play With Road Victory

The Central women’s tennis team opened American Rivers Conference play with a 4-3 road win at Nebraska Wesleyan on Tuesday.

The Dutch (2-0, 1-0 A-R-C) started off the match strong getting doubles wins from Jenna Mitsuko Mahoney and Becca Vala at #2 doubles and Madi Whalen and Jennifer Larson at #3 doubles. Both pairs won 6-2 to secure the team point. After taking the lone point from doubles play, Central added singles match wins from Mahoney at #2 singles (7-6, 6-1) and Lauren Gano at #5 singles (6-0, 6-1). The match came down to #4 singles, where Emma Murphy won 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 to grab the fourth point and the win.

The Dutch will try to carry that momentum into their next conference match on Saturday, when they host Luther at Pella High School at 9 am.

Central Volleyball Grabs Road Win at GracelandThe Central College volleyball team took another step forward Tuesday night, picking up a 3-1 win at Graceland University (25-22, 25-27, 25-13, 25-13).

Central (3-2) battled through the first two sets before claiming sizable margins of victory in the third and fourth sets. Complete, official statistics were not available after the match but the Dutch notched 13 service aces. Setter Avery Rexroat and outside hitter Gracie Pierson each had five aces. Right-side hitter Landry Pacha was initially credited with 13 kills and outside hitter Paige Sexton had nine. The Dutch recorded 12 blocks, with sophomore middle hitter Kaitlyn Mumm leading the way with five.

Central travels to Wisconsin this weekend for three matches at the St. Norbert Chick-fil-A Invitational, beginning with an 8 pm match Friday against Carroll University (Wis.).