Bloomington, Ill. -- This year's CCIW Women's Tennis Championship got underway in Bloomington today, and the Thunder women's tennis team entered the competition as the second seed in the eight-team field. Wheaton's quarterfinal match this afternoon was against seventh-seeded Millikin, and the Thunder rolled past the Big Blue at a 5-1 margin to clinch a spot in the conference tournament's next round. Wheaton's season record now stands at 14-4, and the squad will hope to claim win number 15 in tomorrow afternoon's semifinal.

Having swept Millikin 8-0 in the final match of its fall schedule back in October, Wheaton again eased past its central Illinois opponent on Thursday afternoon. The Big Blue's lone point of the contest came at #1 doubles, but the Thunder still held the advantage heading into singles play thanks to wins at the #2 and #3 positions. Delaney Canning and Janet Kondo teamed up in the former spot to post an 8-0 bagel, before freshman combo Carly O'Leary and Tatum Thurstone battled hard to win 8-6 in the final doubles fixture.

Three of today's six singles matches were left unfinished, as Wheaton claimed the three points it needed to reach a match decision thanks to wins at #3, #5, and #6 singles. Canning earned her second victory of the afternoon in the #5 spot with a nearly-flawless 6-0, 6-1 line, before Thurstone doubled up with a similar 6-0, 6-4 victory. Alexandra Wachs then gave Wheaton its fifth and final point of the day at #3 singles, topping her Millikin counterpart, 6-1, 6-2. The three remaining Thunder players had all won the first set of their unfinished singles fixtures in what was a confident display for the team on Thursday.

The Thunder women's team will look to earn a spot in a third-consecutive CCIW Tournament Championship match when it faces the winner of sixth-seeded Carroll University and third-seeded North Park University in Friday's semifinal at 1:30 PM in Bloomington.