Last Saturday the men's tennis team (14-7, 4-0) clenched a share of the Mid-American Conference title. This Saturday's match against Northern Illinois (13-8, 2-1) holds implications for the conference tournament seeding.
A win by the Cardinals ensures the top seed, but a loss could drop them as low as No. 3.
The Cardinals are coming off a home victory against Western Michigan. The Huskies have won their last two matches but lost 5-2 against Western Michigan on April 5.
Head coach Bill Richards said his team's thoughts will be on preventing a letdown against the Huskies after the win over Western Michigan.
"They've probably been about a half a step behind us and Western Michigan throughout the year," he said. "We have a lot of respect for their team, and we're going to have to play a very good match to finish this out undefeated."
The last time the Cardinals finished the Mid-American Conference season undefeated was 2001. The team also won the regular season conference championship.
Ball State will be in trouble if its approach to the match is anything less than the intensity level against Western Michigan, Richards said.
Richards said this match is important for the team because it needs to keep momentum going into the conference tournament.
"If it's the last match and you lose, and you tie I don't think you have the same sense of accomplishment," he said.
Richards said the singles lineup is likely to be similar to the one used in the last match. The lineup is expected to be No.1 senior Chris Varga, No. 2 freshman Matt Baccarani, No. 3 senior Kevin Burnett, No. 4 sophomore Matt Laramore, No. 5 freshman Patrick Thompson and No. 6 sophomore Brad Rhodes.
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