GAME STATS Wheaton, Ill. - The Wheaton Thunder women's tennis hosted CCIW foe North Central College on Wednesday evening. The Cardinals gained an early lead in the match score tonight by sweeping doubles action and the Cardinals hung on to defeat the Thunder 4-3. Wheaton is nos 5-2 overall and 3-1 in CCIW play, while the Cardinals improve to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in CCIW play this fall.

North Central's No. 1 doubles team of Kensington Payne and Abigail Penados topped the Thunder tandem of Madeline Gentry and Tatum Thurstone, 6-4. NCC won the matchup at No. 2 doubles as Kate Herlihy and Liveta Ezerskis bested the Wheaton team of Ella Malone and Janet Kondo, 6-1. In the contest at No. 3 doubles it was the NCC duo of Sophia Drozd and Eva Zaskowski with a 6-4 victory against the home duo of Carly O'Leary and Sophie Dew.

Dew gave Wheaton its first win and tied the match score at 1-1 when she won her match at at No. 5 singles. Dew defeated North Central's Anais Gerard in their match 6-2, 6-1. Payne gave North Central a 2-1 lead as she defeated Thurstone 6-3, 6-3 in the matchup at No. 2 singles. Penados increased the Cardinals' lead to 3-1 as she picked up a 6-4, 6-3 victory at No. 1 singles. Thunder freshman Mia Luo cut the NCC lead to 3-2 thanks to her 7-5. 6-0 victory at No. 6 singles against Eva Zaskowski. Herlihy locked up the Cardinals' victory as she defeated Kondo 0-6, 6-1, 6-4 in their match at No. 4 singles as she gave NCC a 4-2 lead. The match concluded with a victory for Wheaton's Malone against Ezerskis in their match at No. 3 singles. Malone was a 5-7, 7-5, 1-0 (10-3) victory in the dramatic back-and-forth match.

Wheaton remains in conference play on Saturday as it faces Augustana in Rock Island. The Thunder matchup against the Vikings will start at 12:45 p.m.