MADISON, Wis. – Every year on the first weekend of April, Jon Miedema, Augustana head women's tennis coach takes his team to the Midwest Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin where he puts his Vikings up against some of the best teams in the nation at the NCAA Division III level. That was certainly the case again this year as Miedema's charges opened the tournament on Friday, April 6 with a pair of losses to teams ranked in the top 40 in NCAA Division III.
 
The Vikings opened play at 7:30 in the morning and lost 9-0 to number 10 ranked Chicago. Augustana played tough at both the number one and number two doubles positions. At number one the Vikings junior duo of Caitlyn Schaffer (Kenwood Academy, Chicago, Ill.) and Madeline Lombardi (Edwardsville HS, Glen Carbon, Ill.) dropped a hard-fought 8-7 decision to Claire Handa and Marjorie Antohi. The number two team of freshman Annie Timm (Prairie Ridge HS, Crystal Lake, Ill.) and sophomore Zeana Badawi (Hinsdale Central HS, Burr Ridge, Ill.) lost a narrow 8-6 match to Catherine Xu and Daryn Ellison.
 
The number three team of freshmen Leraaen Abbott (Belvidere North HS, Belvidere, Ill.) and Margaret Chadick (Plainfield North HS, Plainfield, Ill.) fell 8-1 to Laura Gutierrez and Alyssa Rudin.
 
Augustana dropped all six singles matches with Schaffer's 4-6; 3-6 loss to Handa at number one and Timm's 2-6; 5-7 defeat by Antohi being the closest contests.
 
After losing to the Maroons the Vikings took the court later in the day against 39^th ranked DePauw and lost 8-1. The lone victory for Augustana came at number one singles where Timm defeated Megan Galle 7-6; 6-3 to push her individual record this season to 21-5.
 
Augustana is now 16-7 on the season and all of the losses have come to either nationally or regionally ranked opponents.