For the 37th time in school history the Luther College men's tennis team has been crowned the conference champions. This afternoon in Waverly, Iowa, the Norse defeated the Knights of Wartburg College 7-0. This was also the sixth consecutive American Rivers title for the Norse with all six finishing undefeated.

The Norse have dominated throughout the regular season schedule posting a combined singles record of 45-3 and 19-5 in doubles action. Luther will be the No. 1 seed for the six-team A-R-C Automatic Qualifier Tournament that will begin with first round matches on April 28. Luther has received a bye for the first round and will host a semifinal match on Thursday, April 30, with an opponent to be determined. The championship match of the tournament will be held on Saturday, May 2 at the highest remaining seed home courts.

This was the final time these two teams will face each other as regular season conference opponents as Luther is becoming an official member of the Midwest Conference on July 1 of this year. Since 1967 the Norse and Knights have faced each other on the tennis courts and Luther has dominated posting a mark of 58-4. 

The Norse lost five games in double play and swept all six singles matches in straight sets. In doubles, Joao Benvenutti and Abhay Chhabra improved to 19-4 for the year after posting a (6-3) win at No. 1. Rhys Biro-Moore and Jake Nelson won at No. 2 (6-0), and Juan Herandez Herrera and Geoffrey Stoughton won at No. 3 (6-2).

Singles results included Benvenutti at No. 1 (6-1, 6-2), Herrera at No. 2 (6-2, 6-3), Chhabra at No. 3 (6-2, 7-6(9-7), Gerardo Ramirez Mainou at No. 4 (6-0, 6-1), Nelson at No. 5 (6-3, 7-5), and Gregor Gotteiin at No. 6 (6-1, 6-2).

Box Score

Luther, who moved up to No. 41 in the national rankings by the ITA in the NCAA III this afternoon, will complete its regular season schedule at Augustana College (IL) on Sunday, April 26. Start time is slated for 1 p.m.