Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324

Box Score

WHEATON, Ill. (Apr. 13, 2021) – In a match that came down to the final set, the North Central College men's tennis team nearly knocked off Wheaton College on Tuesday, but could not hang on in a heartbreaking 5-4 loss at Wheaton Tennis Courts.

North Central (6-5, 2-1 CCIW) came out on fire during doubles play, claiming all three matches to take a huge 3-0 lead into singles play.   Javier Suarez Balsera and Ramon Vilarroig Martinez opened the scoring with a 8-2 drubbing of Anderson Park and Alex Winters at the No. 2 position.
 
At No. 2, Guillermo Gonzalez Fernandez and Andy Hinch teamed up in a hard fought 8-7 victory over Cody Ching and Joey Geisz at the No. 1 position, while Morgan Red and Justin Howes completed the doubles sweep by taking down Jacob Panjwani and Graham Shelton, 8-4, at the No. 3 position.
 
The Thunder (4-2, 2-0 CCIW) quickly cut the lead 3-2 to open singles play however, scoring wins at No. 4 and No. 2, but Vilarroig Martinez was able to take one of those points back with a 6-2, 7-5 defeat of Jack Wenzel at the No. 3 position.
 
Following two-straight Wheaton victories at No. 1 and No. 6, the match came down to the No. 5 position featuring Red and Winters.  Red jumped out to the early lead with a tightly contested 7-6 opening set, before falling 2-6 in the second.  With the match on the line, Red took an early 4-1 lead in the set but could not hang on in the end, falling 5-7.
 
North Central will close out the regular season on the road with four straight CCIW matches, starting with Augustana College on Saturday, Apr. 17 with matches at Lower Campus Courts scheduled for 1 p.m.