MOLINE, Ill. – A narrow 5-4 loss to Wheaton in the championship match of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin's Automatic Qualifying Tournament on Saturday, April 30 denied Augustana of a second straight NCAA Division III Tournament appearance. The Vikings, ranked 13^th in the latest NCAA Division III Central region poll, fell to the 14^th ranked Thunder in a classic matchup that came down to the final singles match.
 
Just like a year ago, the match came down to the number three singles spot. In 2015 the Vikings Mollie Magee (Olathe East HS, Overland Park, Kan.) came up with a huge 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win over Wheaton's Lauren Schlabach to clinch things for Augustana. This time around Magee lost a hard-fought 4-6; 6-4; 6-4 decision to Emily Jones and the Thunder grabbed the qualifying spot.
 
The Vikings took a 2-1 lead after doubles play as junior Dana Goggin (Buffalo Grove HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) and senior Aileen MacDonald (Mundelein HS, Mundelein, Ill.) defeated Julie Buursma and Katie Park 8-5 at number one.  At number two doubles the Augustana team of junior Lauren Goggin (Buffalo Grove HS, Arlington Heights, Ill.) and Magee picked up an 8-3 win over Jones and Kirstie White.
 
Wheaton won at number three doubles when Miranda Kay and Erika Nelson beat the Vikings freshmen duo of Caitlyn Schaffer (Kenwood Academy, Chicago, Ill.) and Madeline Lombardi (Edwardsville HS, Glen Carbon, Ill.) 8-5.
 
MacDonald won at number four singles with a 6-2; 6-3 victory over White and Schaffer took care of Kay 6-3; 6-3 at number five.
 
Lauren Goggin fell 6-3; 6-2 to Buursma at number one and Dana Goggin lost to Park 6-4; 7-6 at number two. Junior Vicki Andonova (Downers Grove South HS, Westmont, Ill.) lost to Sara Magnuson 6-1; 6-1 at number six.
 
Augustana ends the season with a school record-tying 24 wins as the Vikings went 24-8. The 24 victories ties the record set a year ago when head coach Jon Miedema's team went 24-9. Schaffer set a new school record for singles wins in a single season with a final mark of 31-5. She breaks the old standard of 30 set by Magee last year when she was 30-12.
 
It also marks the end of a tremendous career by MacDonald. She finished with a combined (singles & doubles) record of 151-67 and that is the third highest win total in Augustana history. She piled up 81 doubles wins (81-35) and that is second on the all-time list and her 70 singles victories (70-32) ranks her sixth.
 
While Schaffer led the team in singles wins with 31, Magee piled up a 25-10 mark and MacDonald finished at 24-7. Lauren Goggin was 23-14 and Dana Goggin completed the year 21-10. Andonova was also over 20 wins with a 20-8 record.
 
Dana Goggin and MacDonald were 26-9 in doubles while Lauren Goggin and Magee finished with a 23-8 record. Schaffer and Lombardi checked in at 22-7.
 
The Vikings also won the CCIW title back in the fall during the flighted tournament and it was their first league title since 1997. That earned Miedema's team the right to host the automatic qualifying tournament this weekend.