Contact: Drew Sauer, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
Box Score
ELMHURST, Ill. (May 7, 2021) – Avenging its loss in the regular season, the North Central College men's tennis team advanced to the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Championship with a 5-0 sweep of Wheaton College on Friday in the semi-finals contested at Brune Tennis Courts on the campus of Elmhurst University.
Dropping a tough 5-4 match on Apr. 13 at Wheaton for its only regular-season conference defeat, the Cardinals responded with a vengeance on Friday, sweeping all three doubles positions to take a commanding 3-0 lead into singles play.
Opening the scoring at No. 3 doubles was the duo of
Morgan Red and
Justin Howes, downing Jacob Panjwani and Alex Winters, 8-4. Atop the doubles lineup,
Guillermo Gonzalez Fernandez and
Andy Hinch scored a 8-5 win over Cody Ching and Joey Geisz, before
Javier Suarez Balsera and
Ramon Vilarroig Martinez teamed for a hard fought 8-6 victory over Anderson Park and Jack Wenzel at the No. 2 position.
Holding the 3-0 lead after doubles play,
Steven Mears set up match point for the Cardinals, breezing past Graham Shelton, 6-1, 6-0 at the No. 6 spot. Shortly following Mears' win, Hinch sent the Cardinals to Saturday's championship match with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Geisz at the No. 4 position.
North Central will compete for its second CCIW Championship in program history and the first since 1961, as the top-seeded Cardinals will square off with second-seeded Augustana College on Saturday, May 8 at 1 p.m. at Brune Tennis Courts.
