40-0

Luther College men’s tennis wrapped up its conference season May 6 by raising another IIAC championship trophy, its 30th in team history and fourth in four years.

The Norse (33-8) defeated Wartburg College 5-1 in the semifinals before beating Coe College 5-2 in the championship match.

The two tournament wins brought the senior class of 2010’s career team IIAC record to a perfect 40-0, an accomplishment reached less than one week after the team beat Gustavus Adolphus College (Minn.) for the first time in over 30 years.

The conference title sends the Norse to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive time, a place the team had been to only once prior to that stretch.

The national tournament will be played May 15-17 at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

As first-years, the class of 2010 joined a team loaded with talent. Only Max Busch and Utsab Rijal were able to crack the top lineup where they played #1 and #2 singles, respectively for a team that went 29-7 but fell in the second round of nationals to Gustavus.

During the following two seasons, Busch and Rijal kept playing in the top lineup as Mark Mateski, Scott Martin, Jake Reitz and Zach Kulzer added depth and kept improving on the team’s second lineup.

In 2008, the Norse again fell to Gustavus in the second round of nationals, a theme they were becoming all too familiar with. In 2009, though, with Mateski playing at #6 singles and #3 doubles, the Norse defeated University of Texas-Tyler 5-4 and advanced to the national tournament’s round of 16 for the first time in school history.

“Winning conference every year is always a highlight,” Head Coach Brian Huinker said. “But last year our win over U-T Tyler to get to the round of 16 at nationals was amazing. There is only one other team in the [IIAC] that has ever advanced that far.”

This season, the Norse have consistently ranked in the nation and are currently ranked ninth in the Central Region. Busch and Rijal have thrived in singles, playing behind Scott Sundstrom (‘12) and Harry Whiteley (‘11), Mateski has kept improving and Martin was added to the top lineup, playing primarily doubles.

With this lineup, composed of four players from the 2010 class, the Norse have won ten straight matches and 14 of 15 going into the national tournament, where they hope to advance past the second round for the second consecutive year.