CEDAR RAPIDS — A valiant effort by the No. 3 seeded Central College men's tennis team in the American Rivers Conference tournament not enough in a 5-0 loss to No. 2 Coe College Friday.
           
Central ends its season at 7-3 while Coe (15-4) advances to face the regular season champions from Luther College in Saturday's final.
           
"Coe had answers for everything we did," coach Ryun Ferrell said. "Both teams played well and really smart, but Coe was just a little bit better."
           
Central battled in all three doubles matches but couldn't find a win, losing 8-4 at the No. 2 and No. 3 slots.
           
"We would set it up and thought we had a shot to put it away but the ball kept coming back," Ferrell said.  "We just couldn't quite get over the hump."
           
The Kohawks took the No. 1 and No. 2 singles contests to end the match.     
           
The Dutch will lose three key pieces from this year's squad as David Boschma (senior, Olathe, Kan., Northwest HS), William Isiminger (senior, North Aurora, Ill., West Aurora HS) and Ethan St. John (senior, Crystal Lake, Ill., Central HS) are graduating next weekend. Isiminger and Boschma have played No. 1 and No. 2 in the singles lineup for most of their career.
           
"They are going to be tough to replace," Ferrell said. "Those three set the bar for us to be where we are and hopefully we can start taking it beyond where we have been."
           
Even with the graduating trio, Ferrell is optimistic about next year's roster.
           
"We've got some good players coming in and some good players already on the roster coming back," Ferrell said. "We 're hoping that some people who haven't played a ton can step up and show why they deserve to be in the lineup."