HANOVER PARK, Ill. -- The Augustana Vikings women's tennis team was defeated by the top-seeded North Central Cardinals on Friday in the semifinals of the CCIW Fall Championships, falling by a score of 5-0.

The Vikings (5-6) battled tough against the undefeated Cardinals (13-0), primarily in doubles where they saw a couple of leads early on. The Cardinals duo at No. 3 pulled away for the win of the day to give North Central the early advantage followed by wins in the other two positions. Both Augustana tandems of Lily Schoek and Caitlyn Hanulikova at No. 1 and Lauren Oda and Grace Rider at No. 2 saw themselves in front early on in the match, but were unable to hold as North Central won 8-5 and 8-4 respecitvely. 

Needing just two points to clinch the match, the Cardinals did just that in singles with wins at No. 5 and No. 3. Shoeck was leading her opponent in the second set at No. 1 singles before the match was called with the 5-0 victory for North Central.
 

"We played doubles really well today and pushed three good teams," said head coach David DeSimone. "I was very proud of our doubles performance and it will be a positive area going into tomorrow's match. We played tough today, but North Central was a little too tough across the board. We are excited for tomorrow."

Augie will now await their opponent on Saturday. The Vikings will face the loser of Wheaton and Millikin for third place.