WHEATON, Ill. -- The Augustana Vikings women's tennis team was defeated by the Wheaton Thunder on Saturday, falling by a score of 8-1 on the road.

The Thunder were triumphant in all three doubles matches for an early 3-0 lead heading into singles play. Lauren Oda and Grace Rider nearly squeaked out a win to salvage a point at No. 2 doubles, but fell in a close battle by a score of 8-7.

In singles, the home team clinched the match right away following wins at No. 5 and 2. The Thunder took the first seven matches in their favor before Caitlyn Hanulikova got the Vikings on the board with a hard-fought, three-set win at the No. 3 position. She defeated Bethany Hoogerheid 6-2, 2-6, 10-8 to improve to 7-1 in singles play this year. In the final match of the day at the No. 4 slot, Oda put up a strong fight but fell in two evenly-matched sets.

"We were a couple of points away from making it 1-2 heading into singles rather than 0-3," said head coach David DeSimone. "We could have seen things play out differently if that were the case, but I am happy with the way we competed in singles despite the deficit. We had some good performances against a solid Wheaton team."

With the loss, Augustana falls to 4-4 overall and 4-3 in conference play. The Vikings return home for their final regular season CCIW match of the year on Saturday, October 16th when they host Millikin. Start time is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.