Vikings claim third straight CCIW championship and make third consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance; finish 13-7 overall and 6-1 in the league; Caio de Rezende named conference Player of the Year; Peter Alex joins him as first team All-CCIW pick; Jon Miedema steps down as winningest coach in program history
 
Coach Jon Miedema's Augustana men made his final season at the school a memorable one, claiming their third straight CCIW championship and making their third straight NCAA Tournament appearance in 2020-21. The Vikings finished 13-7 overall and 6-1 in the conference and avenged their only league loss with a victory over North Central in the finals of the CCIW Tournament. Senior Caio de Rezende (Colegio Itoca, Sao Paulo, Brazil) captured CCIW Player of the Year honors and classmate Peter Alex (Hinsdale South HS, Darien, Ill.) joined him on the All-CCIW first team. At the end of the season, Miedema—the winningest coach in the history of both the men's and women's programs at Augustana—announced that he would be stepping down.
 
After a 1-3 start to the season against stiff competition which included Coe, UW-Whitewater and UW-Eau Claire, the Vikings ran off five straight wins. Four of those came in league play and three by the narrowest of margins. Alex had three-set victories at second singles to provide the clinchers in 5-4 wins at both Carthage and Hope.
 
Augustana fell to a powerful Chicago outfit on the road and suffered its only CCIW setback to North Central before rattling off three straight wins. Junior Leonardo Panosso (La Sale Caxias, Caxias do Sul, Brazil) scored the clincher in the conference finale versus Wheaton, winning in three sets at number four to lift the Vikings to a 5-4 victory. A loss to Luther in the regular season finale sent Miedema's bunch into CCIW Tournament play as the second seed with a 9-6 overall mark and a 6-1 league ledger.
 
When Augustana downed Elmhurst 5-0 in the CCIW quarterfinals, it gave Miedema his 158th win—the most in program history. A 5-4 semifinal victory over Carthage gave the Vikings a second chance at North Central. With the dual tied at 4-4, de Rezende came through to capture the clincher at first singles and give Augustana a 5-4 win and its third straight CCIW title. The Vikings won in 2017-18 and 2018-19 before fears over COVID nixed last year's championships.
 
The team's opening-round NCAA opponent was a 9-0 Grinnell outfit that had dropped just two sets and not a single individual match all season. However, Augustana won at the top four singles flights and came out a 5-3 winner. Host and eventual national semifinalist Washington University ended the Vikings' season, handing them a defeat in the second round.
 
De Rezende, who shared team MVP honors with Alex for the second straight year, finished with a 15-3 record at number one singles and went 10-9 with various partners at first and second doubles. His respective records within conference play were 7-0 and 6-1. For his career, he posted a 63-26 mark in singles, tied for fourth-most wins in program history. De Rezende was 49-31 in doubles and his 112 total career victories rank 14th all-time at Augustana.
 
A two-time team captain and three-time MVP, Alex went 9-7 this year at second and third singles (5-2 in the conference). He posted a 57-25 career singles record and a doubles mark of 58-46. He's tied for 12th all-time in singles wins for the Vikings and tied for 16th in doubles victories. Alex's 115 total career wins are 13th-best in program history.
 
Senior Alvaro Leal (Maristas Valencia, Valencia, Spain) played at both second and third singles, going 3-6 and Panosso finished 7-9 in singles (4-2 in the CCIW), split between numbers three and four. Freshman Eliot St. Paul (Ecole Diagonal, Paris, France) posted the second-most singles wins on the team with an 11-7 record (5-2 in the league), primarily at numbers four and five. Junior Justin Cassens (Emerald Ridge HS, Puyallup, Wash.) split time between fifth and sixth singles and finished 7-10, with a 4-3 mark in the conference.
 
In doubles play, Cassens (11-3 overall) and Panosso (12-7 overall) combined for an 8-1 record at number three. Leal and de Rezende bounced between numbers one and two, posting an 8-4 mark as a team. Alex and junior Kyle Boudreau (Antioch HS, Antioch, Ill.) did the same, going 4-10 together.
 
 
2020-21 CCIW STANDINGS

SCHOOL	CONF	OVERALL
AUGUSTANA	6-1	13-6
North Central	6-1	11-6
Carthage	5-2	9-7
Wheaton	5-2	8-5
Millikin	3-4	6-10
Illinois Wesleyan	1-5	7-8
Elmhurst	1-6	1-10
Carroll	0-6	1-7

 
2020-21 COLLEGE CONFERENCE OF ILLINOIS & WISCONSIN TOURNAMENT 
Tuesday, May 4
#8 Carroll at #1 North Central, Canceled (North Central Advances)
#4 Wheaton 6, #5 Millikin 0
#2 Augustana 5, #7 Elmhurst 0
#3 Carthage 6, #6 Illinois Wesleyan 1
Friday, May 7
#1 North Central 5, #4 Wheaton 0
#2 Augustana 5, #3 Carthage 2
Saturday, May 8
#2 Augustana 5, #1 North Central 4
 
2020-21 AUGUSTANA SUPERLATIVES
CCIW Finish: 1st
CCIW All-Conference:  Caio de Rezende (1st team); Peter Alex (1st team)
CCIW Individual Flight Champions: Caio de Rezende (#1 singles)
CCIW Player of the Year: Caio de Rezende
CCIW Player of the Week: Caio de Rezende (03/24/21)
Most Singles Wins: 15, Caio de Rezende
Most Doubles Wins: 12, Leonardo Panosso
CCIW Academic All-Conference: Justin Cassens, Caio de Rezende, Sriram Sugumaran
 
TOP TEN LIST ADDITIONS
Career Singles Wins: 63, Caio de Rezende, 4th
 
TEAM AWARDS
Most Valuable Player: Caio de Rezende, Peter Alex
Hardest Worker: Justin Cassens
Most Improved: Leonardo Panosso