ELMHURST, Ill. – A 6-3 win over Carthage on Friday, May 2 put Augustana into a showdown with Wheaton for the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin's NCAA qualifying spot in women's tennis. The Vikings and the Thunder will meet at 2:00 p.m. in Elmhurst, Illinois and the winner claims the CCIW's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III national tournament.
 
Head coach Jon Miedema's team used a strong performance in singles to overcome a 2-1 deficit after finishing doubles play against the Lady Reds. Augustana won five of the six singles matches to claim a 6-3 win over Carthage, ironically the same score as when the two teams met back on August 30 in the first match of the year.
 
The Vikings' number three doubles team of senior Emily Kaczmarek (Glenbard South HS, Lombard, Ill.) and junior Miranda Pence (Oswego HS, Oswego, Ill.) squeaked out a 9-8 win over Holly Weber and Kristen Kalinka. That was the lone Augustana win in doubles. The number one team of freshman Lauren Goggin (Buffalo Grove HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) and Lauren Goggin (Buffalo Grove HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) fell to Haleigh McPeek and Bari Reynolds 8-6 and the number two duo of senior Kim Sawyer (Batavia HS, Batavia, Ill.) and sophomore Aileen MacDonald (Mundelein HS, Mundelein, Ill.) lost 8-2 to Abbi Howell and Eliza Barter.
 
Three of the single matches went the full three sets and Augustana prevailed in all of them. Sawyer gutted out a tough 7-6; 4-6; 7-6 win over McPeek at number one singles to move her record this year to 23-5. Dana Goggin beat Howell 6-3; 6-7; 6-0 at number three and is now 15-10 and senior Mariah Bardo (Sterling HS, Sterling, Ill.) defeated Kelsey Bowen 6-2; 4-6; 10-6 at number six. Bardo has a 16-9 record this year.
 
MacDonald blitzed Barter 6-0; 6-0 to up her mark to 14-10 and Kaczmarek beat Weber 7-6; 6-4 to move to 19-10.
 
Augustana is now 18-6 overall and will face Wheaton, which defeated North Central 8-1 in the other semi-final. The Thunder is 14-5 overall and was 5-1 in CCIW play in the fall with the only loss coming to the Vikings by a score of 6-3 on September 14 at Wheaton. The Thunder won the CCIW tournament on October 5 by a mere two points (69-67) over Miedema's Vikings.