Decatur, Ill. –  The Thunder men's tennis team traveled to Decatur on Friday to battle the Millikin Big Blue in the penultimate regular season match for the 'Orange and Blue'. Wheaton earned a 5-2 victory over the Big Blue to improve to 6-9 (3-3 CCIW) while the Big Blue dropped to 14-7 (3-3 CCIW).
 
With today's victory, Wheaton locks up the No. 4 seed in next week's CCIW Men's Tennis Championship. The Thunder will again face Millikin in the first quarterfinal on Thursday as the Big Blue have secured the No. 5 seed. The Thunder and Big Blue will play next Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. in the tournament's opening match.
 
The Big Blue won the point at doubles with victories at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. Wheaton's No. 2 doubles team of Toby Schmidt and David Hill picked up a 6-0 victory in their respective match.

The Thunder answered in the singles portion by winning five of the six matchups. Senior Corin Tang outdueled his opponent for a 6-2, 6-2 win in No. 1 singles. Andrew Winters escaped in tiebreakers with a 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 victory to claim the No. 3 singles match. Ryder Ward also needed tiebreakers to pull off a 5-7, 6-2, 7-2 decision in No. 5 singles. Just like Tang, David Hill in No. 4 singles and Toby Schmidt in No. 6 singles earned two set victories in their fixtures with Hill winning 6-1, 6-3 and Schmidt winning 6-4, 7-5.
 
The Thunder will stay on the road for their final regular season match as they take on the Illinois Wesleyan Titans tomorrow at 4:00 PM.