Hanover Park, Ill. -- It had been two weeks since the Wheaton men's tennis team played their last match, but there were very few signs of rust when the Thunder hosted the Carroll Pioneers on Friday evening for their conference opener. The home team dismantled their Wisconsin opponents to earn a smooth 9-0 victory and improve to 8-5 on the year.

Jack Booker and Cody Ching teamed up to secure an 8-3 win at #1 doubles, while Joey Geisz and Jacob Williams were faultless in their 8-0 victory in the second position. Tim Steiner and Jack Wenzel registered an 8-1 decision at #3 doubles to give the Thunder some breathing room heading into the singles competitions.

Booker had the most challenging matchup of the night in his #1 singles spot, as he fought off a first-set tiebreak defeat to claim the point via a 10-5 tiebreak in the decisive third frame. Steiner won his #2 singles pairing at a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 line, and Williams earned another tally for Wheaton with a dominant 6-0, 6-2 #3 singles performance. Wenzel was one game away from perfection at the #4 singles position, while Geisz matched Steiner's scoreline in his #5 singles win. Corin Tang then wrapped things up nicely for the Thunder at the #6 singles spot with a 6-1, 6-2 win of his own to give Wheaton their third consecutive 9-0 result at Centre Court. 

While the team will be pleased with tonight's CCIW curtain-raiser, there is very little time to celebrate before returning to the court. Wheaton heads to Naperville on Saturday to face North Central in a 1:00 PM matchup.