Earning a berth into its first Iowa Conference Team Tournament since 2004, the women’s tennis team wanted to defy their No. 6 seed in the postseason clash and make some waves.

But Loras knew it wouldn’t be easy. Four of the other five teams in the postseason tournament had routed the Duhawks during the regular season.

Competing for the Duhawks in singles play were were senior Lindsay Dunkirk, sophomore Ale Ruales, junior Alisha Espey, first-year Katharine Mack, junior Breann Billiet and senior Kady Homewood. Dunkirk and Ruales teamed up to compete in doubles, and Espey and Billiet comprised the No. 2 doubles team. Mack teamed up with first-year Sarah Dickhut to form the No. 3 doubles team.

In the first round of the tourney, the Duhawks took to the courts Friday night in Iowa City to face the No. 3 seed, Wartburg, which beat Loras 8-1 earlier in the year. Much like the first time the Duhawks squared off against the Knights, the weather was a distraction. This time, Wartburg won the first final five matches, then the final four matches were called off.

“(The loss to Wartburg) was definitely a bummer because we all know our potential and we could have performed better, but at the same time Wartburg is a very solid program and we knew they were going to be ready to go — and that they were,” said Homewood, who, despite being a senior, was participating in collegiate competition for the first time this year.

With that loss, the Duhawks moved across in the bracket to the fifth-place match against the No. 5 seed, Central, which had swept Loras during the regular season. But the Duhawks had other ideas and played the Dutch tough.

The No. 2 pair of Espey and Billiet gutted out a tough 9-8 win to start the Duhawks off right. Espey then followed up the grueling doubles match with a win in her singles match, 6-2, 6-4. The doubles team of Mack and Dickhut also won their doubles match, 8-6.

However, Central won the other five contests to win the match.

“Earlier this season, we lost 0-9 to Central, and to come back last Saturday with a score of 3-5 was not too shabby,” Homewood said. “Central is a very strong program and it was very close; everyone performed well.”

The Duhawks finished the season with a 7-11-1 record, 4-5-1 in conference play. However, this year’s team recorded the most conference wins by the program since 2003. Homewood thinks the team is headed in the right direction and will perform even better next year.

“I think it’s safe to say we made a lot of improvements this year and we should be very proud of ourselves,” Homewood added. “It’s a cool feeling to know how hard we worked and to see it pay off.”