Hanover Park, Ill. -- After four months away from the courts, the Thunder women's tennis team finally resumed its 2023-24 season on Saturday evening with a non-conference test against a strong Concordia University Wisconsin side. Wheaton claimed four of the six singles matches in today's meeting to earn a hard-fought 5-4 victory and hand the Falcons just their second loss of the year. Wheaton is now 9-2 on the season.

The visiting Falcons won the first two doubles matches this evening by comfortable margins and threatened to pull away from their hosts early. But the Thunder picked up what would prove to be a decisive point at #3 doubles courtesy of Delaney Canning and Tatum Thurstone, who dug deep to win their competitive fixture at an 8-6 margin.

Canning then doubled up on the day with a dominant 6-1, 6-1 victory at #6 singles to make it 2-2 overall. Audrey Vick posted a confident showing at #2 singles, winning her match 6-3, 6-1. Lydia Adams also had a smooth performance in her #4 singles test, capturing the point at a 6-2, 6-0 line. With a pair of CUW victories at #3 and #1 singles, it all came down to the #5 singles position, where the winner would clinch the match win for her respective team. Janet Kondo answered the call, taking the first set of her match, 6-4, and shrugging off a second-set defeat to capture the decisive tiebreak and hand Wheaton a satisfying 5-4 victory.

Having resumed competition, the Thunder women's team will head to Orlando, Florida in the first week of March to play three Spring Break matches against non-conference opponents. Wheaton will aim to pick up its tenth match win of the campaign when it faces Division II opponent Cedarville University on Wednesday, March 6th.