BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Elmhurst men's tennis team blanked Carthage College in the semifinals of the CCIW Championship to advance to the championship final for the second straight season.

Elmhurst jumped out to the best possible start by sweeping all three doubles contests.The Bluejays' duo of Alex Harbert and Will Jung defeated Carthage's Jeff Lotz and Alex Boomgarden 9-7 at No. 1 doubles. The Bluejays' Luke Tanaka and Chris Harrison stopped Conor Moon and Brandon Curtis 8-6 at No. 2 doubles. Elmhurst's Vincent McPherson and Kevin Noble shutout Ryan Jump and Brian Howes 8-0 at No. 3 doubles.

In singles play, Tanaka breezed to a 6-0, 6-2 win over Juan Robles at No. 4 singles to give the Bluejays a point. McPherson rallied from a set down to defeat Jump 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 singles and hand the match to the Bluejays. The remaining singles contests were not finished once the team outcome had been determined.  Harbert trailed Lotz 4-6, 1-2 at No. 1 singles when the match was stopped while Jung was leading Boomgarden 6-1, 5-5 at No. 2 singles. Quinn Jennings (6-2, 3-4) was leading Howes at No. 5 singles while Harrison (6-1, 5-7) was on top of Tom Klassman at No. 6 singles.

Elmhurst (13-9), the top seed in the tournament by virtue of an unbeaten CCIW regular season, will face second-seeded Wheaton College in tomorrow's championship at 2:00 p.m. Wheaton is the defending conference champion, but the Bluejays downed the Thunder 6-3 earlier this season. Elmhurst is seeking its first CCIW men's tennis championship since 1954.