Wheaton, Ill. -- After defeating UW-Eau Claire on Saturday, the Wheaton men's tennis team returned to conference play this afternoon by hosting the 26th-ranked North Central College Cardinals. Wednesday's contest was the last home match of 2024 for the Thunder. North Central earned an 8-1 victory today to clinch a perfect 7-0 CCIW match record while dropping Wheaton's mark to 2-3 in conference fixtures. The Cardinals will go into next weekend's CCIW Tournament as the top seed, but Wheaton's standing is still to be determined.

The visitors from Naperville took all three doubles matches to establish a firm advantage, including a gritty 8-7 tiebreak win at #2 doubles.

Tim Steiner accounted for Wheaton's lone point today, topping his #2 singles rival in a marathon 7-6, 6-7, 1-0 [10-8] tiebreak victory. Reigning CCIW player of the week Joey Geisz, who was recognized before the match in a Senior Day tribute, bageled his NCC opponent in the first set of their #3 singles match, and Andrew Jang also took the first frame off of his Cardinals competitor. But today's talented, nationally-ranked guests eventually overpowered the home side and logged another conference victory.

The Thunder men will wrap up their regular season slate with a pair of matches in central Illinois this weekend, as the team heads to Millikin on Friday afternoon and Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday.