PELLA— In its regular season finale, the Central College women's team suffered a narrow defeat against Truman State University Wednesday afternoon.
           
The Dutch (9-11) had an easy 8-1 win at No. 3 doubles from Madi Whalen (Kansas City, Mo., Park Hill HS) and Jennifer Larson (junior, Johnston) to get the night started.
           
"We got Jen back after being injured for a lot of the spring," coach Ryun Ferrell said. "They have looked really solid. She's playing like the Jen Larson of her freshman year when she was uber healthy."
           
Central played a pair of close matches at the top of the doubles lineup but lost both and trailed 2-1 going into singles. Whalen won at No. 2 by retirement to knot the match at 2-2 with five singles matches to play.
           
"We had chances at 1 and doubles," Ferrell said. "If we had swept doubles, we could have been up 4-0 against a good team."
           
Becca Vala (junior, Omaha, Neb., Elkhorn HS) and Lauren Gano (freshman, Johnston) continued their torrid springs with singles wins. Vala won 6-4, 6-0 at No. 4 and Gano won 6-0, 6-2 at No. 6. Gano has won eight of her last 10 singles matches while Vala has won seven of her last 10.
           
"I'm not always sure how she does, but all Becca does is win," Ferrell said. "We knew Lauren was going to be good and she's turned out to be awesome. She's embracing the opportunity.
           
"We had a really good shot at being a NCAA Division II team," Ferrell said. "We left it all out there and it was a really fun match."
           
As the No. 5 seed, Central plays the opening round match of the American Rivers Conference tournament at No. 4 Wartburg College on Tuesday at 4 p.m.