Wheaton, Ill. -- The Wheaton men's tennis team played their last home contest of the regular season on Tuesday evening, and it could not have come against a much tougher opponent. Facing off against a North Central squad ranked ninth in the region and boasting only two losses on the year, the Thunder knew they were in for a battle. But the team fought until the end and came within touching distance of pulling the upset, eventually falling 5-4 to the Cardinals. Tonight's loss drops Wheaton's record to 9-5 on the season and 2-1 in conference play.

The even nature of Tuesday's meeting was on full display in the doubles section of the contest. North Central took the #2 pairing, 8-4, but Wheaton responded by claiming the #3 doubles match by a score of 8-3, with Jack Wenzel and Tim Steiner serving as the winning combination. Only a successful tiebreaker game at 7-7 in the #1 doubles situation separated the two teams by giving the visiting Cardinals a 2-1 edge on the score sheet.

North Central clinched the win by emerging victorious in each of the first three singles pairings. But Wheaton took the latter half to prevent a blowout final result. Wenzel overcame a first frame setback to win his #4 singles contest, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. Doubles partner Steiner than made it a clean sweep for the pairing by also winning his singles match, taking the #5 position by a score of 6-2, 6-4. Joey Geisz claimed the final point for Wheaton in the most lopsided result of the day, blitzing past his Cardinals opponent, 6-1, 6-1 in their #6 singles matchup.

The Thunder will try to shake off the sting of tonight's narrow defeat when they travel to Millikin on Friday for the first of four consecutive conference matches on the road. The contest is scheduled to begin at 4 PM in Decatur.