ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – Junior Leonardo Panosso (La Sale Caxias, Caxias do Sul, Brazil) came through with a 7-5 third-set victory at fourth singles Tuesday to lift Augustana to a 5-4 win over Wheaton at the Lower Campus Courts. Coach Jon Miedema's Vikings improved to 9-5 on the season and 6-1 in the CCIW, while the Thunder fell to 6-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference.
 
Augustana claimed two of three doubles matches. Seniors Alvaro Leal (Maristas Valencia, Valencia, Spain) and Caio de Rezende (Colegio Itoca, Sao Paulo, Brazil) defeated Cody Ching and Joey Geisz 8-2 at number one. At number two, Wheaton's Alex Winters and Jacob Panjwani bested Panosso and freshman Eliot St. Paul (Ecole Diagonal, Paris, France) by a score of 8-4.
 
At third doubles, senior Peter Alex (Hinsdale South HS, Darien, Ill.) and junior Kyle Boudreau (Antioch HS, Antioch, Ill.) rallied from a 7-3 deficit against Anderson Park and Jack Wenzel to post a key 8-7 win, taking the tiebreaker 7-2 to give the Vikings a 2-1 lead heading to singles.
 
The teams split four singles matches that went two sets. De Rezende scored a 6-1, 6-2 win over Park at number one and St. Paul downed Winters 6-4, 7-6 at number five. The Thunder logged respective wins at numbers three and six, where Wenzel defeated Alex two and four and Panjwani beat Justin Cassens (Emerald Ridge HS, Pullayup, Wash.) two and three.
 
That left a pair of three-set matches to decide things. At second singles, Ching bested Leal 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 to even the dual at 4-4. At number four, Panosso pulled out a 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 win over Geisz to give Augustana the victory in a nearly four-hour meet.
 
Miedema's crew opens CCIW Tournament play with a quarterfinal tilt on Tuesday, May 4.