Wheaton, Ill. -- After a pair of matches in Wisconsin last week, the Wheaton men's tennis team returned to its home court on campus to face North Central College this evening. The Cardinals came into Tuesday's contest ranked 31st in the country in the latest men's ITA Division III poll and had already secured a share of the CCIW regular season title. NCC won tonight's match, 5-2, to secure the trophy outright via a perfect 7-0 league record and clinch the #1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament. The Thunder now own a record of 5-9 with a 2-3 mark in CCIW play, with their last two defeats coming against nationally ranked opposition.
The visitors from Naperville were the favorites heading into this evening's fixture, but Wheaton claimed the first point of the match thanks to an impressive effort in the doubles program.
David Hill and
Toby Schmidt won their #2 matchup at a convincing 6-2 margin, before the Cardinals grabbed a hard-fought 7-5 result at the #3 spot. This allowed the Thunder's #1 doubles duo of
Andrew Jang and
Andrew Winters to play the role of point-winners, as they outlasted their North Central rivals in a thrilling 7-6 [7-4] tiebreaker to secure the opening tally for Wheaton.
But the regular season champions still emerged with the match win thanks to five victories in the singles portion of Tuesday's meeting. The Thunder mounted competitive challenges at #2, #3, and #5 singles, but the Cardinals' players did just enough to secure the wins they needed from those duels to put North Central ahead on the scoreboard. Wheaton's lone victory in the solo competitions came courtesy of Hill, who shrugged off a first-set loss at #4 singles to win the second and third frames by a 6-4 count and earn his team's second point of the night.
Having wrapped up its home slate for 2026, the Thunder team will finish out the conference season in central Illinois in the coming days, starting with a visit to Millikin University on Friday afternoon and a match at Illinois Wesleyan on Saturday. Wheaton will then return to Bloomington on April 30 to begin its participation in the CCIW Tournament.
