Bloomington, Ill. -- After sweeping the Millikin Big Blue in Thursday's opening round, the Thunder men's tennis team returned to the Evergreen Racquet Club this morning for a semifinal match at the CCIW Men's Tennis Championship. Wheaton maintained the program's notable record of reaching the conference tournament semifinals and met a familiar opponent in Friday's last four, the regular season champion North Central College. Today's contest marked the fourth-consecutive time that the Thunder and the Cardinals have faced off in the conference semifinals, and the top-seeded squad extended its six-year streak of reaching the CCIW Championship match with a 4-0 victory. Wheaton's season ends with an overall record of 8-10 having secured a winning mark of 4-3 in league play, while North Central now owns a 15-7 record and has advanced to face the winner of second-seeded Carthage College and third-seeded Augustana College in Saturday's tournament championship.
Wheaton was able to claim the opening point of its regular season meeting with North Central ten days ago thanks to two victories in the doubles program. But the nationally-ranked Cardinals flipped the script on Friday and tallied the first point of the semifinal from comfortable wins in the #1 and #3 doubles matchups.
Corin Tang and
David Hill were winning their respective #1 and #4 singles contests when the match was halted prematurely this morning due to NCC having secured the four points it needed for a decision. The Naperville side logged straight-set successes at #3, #5, and #6 singles to confirm its place in another CCIW Championship match.
The Thunder are set to return plenty of talent and experience in 2026-27, with Tang the only graduating senior in this year's varsity lineup. The Wheaton squad will now head into its summer offseason before resuming competition in September.
