MOLINE, Ill. – In a battle between two teams ranked in the top 20 of the latest NCAA Division III Central Region, Augustana fell to Wheaton 5-2 in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin's Automatic Qualifying Championship on Saturday, April 27 in Moline, Illinois at the Quad City Tennis Club. Augustana, which won the CCIW Championship in the fall for the third time in the last four seasons, was looking for its third trip to the NCAA Division III National Tournament.
 
It was not meant to be as the Thunder, ranked 13^th in the region, took care of head coach Jon Miedema's 15^th ranked Vikings by using its strength at the lower end of the lineup.
 
Wheaton, which led 2-1 coming out of doubles, won at numbers four, five and six in singles to clinch the spot in the NCAA Tournament. This was the seventh consecutive year (since 2013), and the eighth time overall, that these two teams were meeting in the AQ Championship with the national berth on the line.
 
In doubles the Wheaton duo of Claire Browning and Claire Dibble defeated the Vikings senior team of Caitlyn Schaffer (Kenwood Academy, Chicago, Ill.) and Madeline Lombardi (Edwardsville HS, Glen Carbon, Ill.) at number one by a score of 8-3. Augustana got a win at number two when sophomore Annie Timm (Prairie Ridge HS, Crystal Lake, Ill.) and junior Zeana Badawi (Hinsdale Central HS, Burr Ridge, Ill.) defeated Sara Magnuson and Nicole Freeman 8-4.
 
The Thunder won at number three doubles when Emma Westwick and Bethany Hoogerheide won a narrow 8-7 decision over sophomores Morgan Bullen (Colorado Academy, Lakewood, Colo.) and Leraaen Abbott (Belvidere North HS, Belvidere, Ill.).
 
The Vikings got a win at number one singles when Schaffer beat Westwick 6-0; 6-3 and Badawi was ahead of Browning 7-6; 4-1 when the match was stopped. Timm had lost the first set to Magnuson 5-7 and it was 1-1 in the second when Wheaton clinched the victory.
 
Dibble beat Lombardi 6-3; 6-4 at number four and Freeman defeated Bullen 6-1; 6-2 at number five. At number six Wheaton's Emma Lindquist won 7-6; 6-3 over Abbott.
 
Augustana ends the season with an 18-6 overall record while Wheaton is now 15-5.