Bloomington, Ill. -- Five days after concluding its regular season schedule at the Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, the Wheaton men's tennis team returned to the central Illinois venue to begin its postseason slate. The 2026 CCIW Men's Tennis Championship started with two quarterfinal matches on Thursday, and fourth-seeded Wheaton took down fifth-seeded Millikin University by a score of 4-0 in the first of these two contests to advance to the semifinal round. The Thunder now own a season record of 8-9, while the Big Blue's campaign comes to an end with a mark of 14-9. Wheaton will face the competition's top seed and two-time defending champion North Central College on Friday, marking the fourth-consecutive year in which the two suburban programs have met at the semifinal stage of the conference tournament.
Despite its eventual 5-2 defeat, Millikin claimed the doubles point when these two sides met one week ago in Decatur. But the Thunder avoided another early deficit against today's opponent thanks to a straightforward win at #2 doubles and a competitive victory at the #3 position.
David Hill and
Toby Schmidt combined for a 6-2 success on the #2 line, and with the Big Blue winning the #1 doubles fixture, Wheaton had
Corin Tang and
Ryder Ward to thank for securing the match's first point via a clutch 6-4 outcome in the final contest.
The Big Blue may have managed to grab a couple of points from the singles program had all the matches been played to their conclusion. But this ultimately would not matter, as the Thunder slammed the door shut and clinched a perfect 4-0 sweep with three straight-set victories. Hill doubled up for the day with a smooth 6-2, 6-1 result at #4 singles, while Ward matched him on two personal wins with a similar 6-3, 6-1 triumph in his #5Â duel. That left the sophomore Schmidt to play the role of match-winner, as he took the first frame of his #6 singles battle, 6-2, before grinding out a 7-5 second-set tally to seal his team's third-straight win and the season sweep over Millikin.Â
Advancing to another conference tournament semifinal, the Thunder will meet a familiar foe on Friday. The North Central Cardinals come into the competition ranked 36th in the latest ITA Division III national team poll and earned a flawless 7-0 record in regular season conference play. The Naperville outfit will be aiming to extend their dominance of the CCIW Championship, while the Wheaton squad will be looking to pull the upset and reverse its recent record against the #1 seed. Tomorrow's semifinal is scheduled to begin at 10 AM in Bloomington.
