KELSIE ALLEN NAMED WOMEN’S TENNIS MVP - BRIAN HUINKER NAMED COACH OF THE YEAR
Oct. 23, 2009
The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) has announced that Luther College senior Kelsie Allen has been selected IIAC Women’s Tennis Most Valuable Player for the 2009 season.
The league also announced that Head Coach Brian Huinker has been selected as the 2009 Iowa Conference Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year. Both awards were voted by the conference coaches following the conference team championship held Oct. 9-0 and the conference individual championship held Oct. 16-17.
At the team championships, Allen helped lead the Norse to a league-record 24th Iowa Conference title. The Norse entered the six-team league finale as the #2 seed and defeated #1 seed Coe College 5-1 in the title match.
A week later, Allen captured the Flight A singles title at the individual championships, needing third-set tiebreakers to win her quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship matches. She became the first Luther player since Maria Miller in 1999 to win the league’s top singles title or be named Iowa Conference MVP.
Allen and partner Brynne Zinnecker also finished third in this year's Flight A doubles championships.
Allen is the ninth Luther student-athlete to be named Iowa Conference MVP in women’s tennis, representing a total of 16 honors.
Allen, the only senior on the Norse squad, posted an 11-2 overall singles record during the fall season with the only blemishes coming in a three-set loss to UW-La Crosse's’s Kelly Kuether in Luther's season-opener and to Wheaton (Ill.) All-American Elizabeth Worsowicz. She posted a 12-4 record in doubles with Zinnecker, competing primarily at the No. 1 position. The tandem was able to avenge two of those losses, defeating Coe’s Andrea Schupbach and Michelle Schupbach in the championship match of the Iowa Conference Women’s Tennis Team Championship, and defeating Central’s Faith Bliss and Kayla Donner in the Flight A third-place match one week later.
Huinker guided Luther to a 14-2 mark during the fall season, including a 9-1 mark against Iowa Conference competition. This marks the first time Huinker has been named IIAC Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year. He has previously been honored as IIAC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year on five occasions (2001, 2006-2009). During his three-plus years at the helm of the women's program, he has led the Norse to an overall dual meet record of 72-20. Last year, he led the Norse to a school record 30 wins and an 11th trip to the NCAA III National Tournament, and its first trip to the national tournament since 2004.
