Contact: Emily Adlfinger, Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (Oct. 16, 2021) – The Loras College women's tennis team captured three medalist honors at the 2021 American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Individual Championship on Saturday with junior Sara Backus and freshman Dorothy Deans winning the B-Flight doubles and sophomore Clair Moore and Backus taking the top two spots in the B-Flight singles. Moore won her second-career individual title while Backus and Deans both collected their first career honors.

Backus came into the tournament seeded sixth and won her opening match against Coe College's Michaela Pinto, 8-3 before taking a 6-2, 6-2 win against Cassandra Magee from Luther College in the second round. She then battled back from a second-set loss to Chihiro Ono from Wartburg College to win the tiebreaker, 10-4 and advanced to the semifinal match against Luther's Sydeny Clausen. The Kenosha, Wis. native made swift work of her opponent, winning 6-3, 6-2 and set herself up for the championship match where she would face a familiar foe: her own teammate Moore.

Moore, seeded third, started her tournament with an 8-5 win against Addi Duranski from Nebraska Wesleyan University before defeating Gabby Flynn from Wartburg, 6-1, 6-4. She then took down Katie Larson from Central College, 6-2, 6-2 to head into her match against Luther's Jalen DenHartog. The sophomore from Quincy, Ill. defeated DenHartog 6-2, 6-4 and secured the B-Flight gold medal honors with an 8-2 win against Backus.

In the B-Doubles, Deans and Backus, seeded third in the bracket, won the championship match against Megan Grubb and Bella Tranquillino, 8-4 after taking down No. 2-ranked Jennifer Larson and Bronwyn Metcalf in the semifinals, 8-4.

In other action at the tournament, Alex Oestreich advanced to the quarterfinals in the C-Flight singles, scoring a second-round win against Raina Fagans of Coe, 8-1 and defeating Ashlyn Brant from Central, 8-4 before falling 8-2 to Central's Jennifer Larson. In her individual tournament debut, Maddy Sampson-Brown won her opening round match in the C-Flight against Abigail King from Buena Vista University, 8-0 and scored a hard-fought 8-6 win against Luther's Natalie Peterson in the second round.

The Duhawks finished the fall season with a 7-4 overall record and 5-3 in conference action.