Wheaton, Ill. (11/1) – The top-seeded Thunder women's soccer team earned a 3-0 victory (against fourth-seeded Carthage on Wednesday night in the semifinals of the CCIW Women's Soccer Tournament. Wheaton improves to 17-2 on the season, with its 11th consecutive victory. Carthage is 12-5-2 on the year.

Wheaton will host Augustana on Saturday afternoon at 4:30 PM in the Championship Match of the CCIW Tournament. Augustana advanced to the Championship Match with a 6-5 edge in a shootout against Illinois Wesleyan after the two teams battled to a 3-3 tie through two overtimes in Tuesday's other semifinal. The winner of Saturday's CCIW Tournament Championship Match will earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament, which begins next week.

Junior Sarah Richardson  booted the 40th goal of her career on a Laura Koontz assist 16:36 into the match as Wheaton took a 1-0 lead that the squad would hold for the rest of the first half. The Thunder lead increased to 2-0 less than three minutes into the second half when Richardson again used a Koontz assist 47:32 into the match. Wheaton increased its lead to 3-0 late in the match when freshman Taryne Lee scored her 14th goal of the year 85:50 into the contest.

Wheaton out-shot the Lady Reds 21-6 and held a 7-0 advantage in corner kicks. Wheaton goalkeeper Kristin Eggert made three saves in 90 minutes of work as she recorded her sixth shutout of the year. Carthage keeper Lindsey Bollman made eight saves in the Lady Reds' net, with three goals allowed.