Bloomington, Ill. -- The 2025 CCIW Women's Tennis Championship got underway in central Illinois on Thursday, as eight teams began this weekend's tournament at the quarterfinal stage. This year's competition is being hosted by Millikin University at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, and the hosts fell to top-seeded North Central College in today's first match. After 11 days away from the court, the Thunder women's tennis team returned to action in the last quarterfinal matchup this evening. Despite winning a share of the conference's regular season title with a 7-1 record in CCIW matches last fall, Wheaton is the #3 seed in this year's tournament by virtue of a tiebreaker. The Thunder began their stay in Bloomington with a 4-0 sweep of sixth-seeded Augustana College on Thursday, and as a result, have advanced to Friday's semifinal stage, where Wheaton will take on fellow regular season co-champions, North Park University.

Wheaton defeated Augustana in a shutout in their regular season matchup back in September, and the Thunder earned another flawless victory over the Vikings this evening. Janet Kondo and Alexandra Wachs posted a convincing 6-1 result at #3 doubles, and Wheaton's #2 doubles combo of Ella Malone and Tatum Thurstone followed this up with a similar 6-2 win in their match to seal the first point for the Thunder. Lydia Adams and Madeline Gentry were leading in their #1 fixture, but due to the decision scoring format that comes into effect in the postseason, this match was halted as soon as Wheaton clinched the point from doubles play.

The Thunder were on track to win all six of the singles contests in Thursday's match, but the #3 seed only needed to win three of these duels to confirm its victory. Kondo doubled up in the win column with a near-perfect 6-1, 6-0 victory at #6 singles, and Adams was close behind her junior teammate with a 6-3, 6-1 win at the third spot. It was then simply a case of which Thunder player would win their match first to provide the all-important fourth point, and this point came from Malone, who joined Kondo on two match wins this evening with a 6-0, 6-3 result at #4 singles to seal Wheaton's place in the semis.

The Thunder will face the North Park Vikings at 1 PM on Friday in the semifinals, with the winner advancing to Saturday's championship match. NPU earned a 5-2 victory over Wheaton in their fall regular season meeting, so the Thunder will be looking to level the score in their 20th match of the campaign tomorrow.