WHEATON, Ill. – Augustana was turned away in its attempt to earn its first ever NCAA Division III women's tennis bid with a 6-3 loss to Wheaton on Saturday, May 3 at the Wheaton Sports Center in Wheaton, Illinois. The Vikings and the Thunder met in the championship match with the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III national tournament on the line.
 
Back in the fall the two teams met on September 13 in Wheaton and head coach Jon Miedema's team came away with a 6-3 victory en route to an undefeated conference season. Wheaton won the CCIW tournament by a narrow two point margin on October 5 in Bloomington, Illinois so the meeting on Saturday was a rubber match or sorts.
 
Augustana battled its way to a 6-3 win over Carthage on Friday, May 2 to set the stage for Saturday's finale against the Thunder. The Vikings were bested in two of the three doubles matches to fall behind 2-1 heading into the singles portion.
 
Senior Kim Sawyer (Batavia HS, Batavia, Ill.) and sophomore Aileen MacDonald (Mundelein HS, Mundelein, Ill.) posted the lone doubles win for Augustana. Sawyer and MacDonald beat Lauren Schlabach and Emily Jones 8-2 at the number two slot to raise their record to 15-6 for the season.
 
At number one the freshman duo of Lauren Goggin (Buffalo Grove HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) and Dana Goggin (Buffalo Grove HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) dropped an 8-4 decision to Sarah Ray and Julie Buursma. The number three team of senior Emily Kaczmarek (Glenbard South HS, Lombard, Ill.) and junior Miranda Pence (Oswego HS, Oswego, Ill.) fell 8-4.
 
In singles, Sawyer at number one and senior Mariah Bardo (Sterling HS, Sterling, Ill.) at number three recorded victories for the Vikings. Sawyer, the two-time Most Outstanding Player in the CCIW, defeated Ray 4-6; 6-1; 6-2. She is now 24-5 on the season. Bardo beat Katherine Kaiser 6-4; 6-1 at number six to move to 17-9 overall.
 
Augustana wraps up the season with an 18-7 overall record.