Fifteen wins and a perfect Mid-American Conference record accompany the men's tennis team into the conference tournament this week. The MAC tournament and matches take place Thursday through Saturday at host Northern Illinois. If No. 59 Ball State (15-7, 5-0) wants its season to continue beyond this weekend, however, two more wins are required.
The Cardinals are led by their top three singles players, senior Chris Varga (15-6), freshman Matt Baccarani (11-10) and senior Kevin Burnett (11-4), who have each won the MAC Player of the Week award during the course of the season.
This is the fifth time the Cardinals have been the top seed in the conference tournament since it went to the dual match format in 1997. Head coach Bill Richards said Ball State's goal from the beginning of the season has been to get the No. 1 for the tournament.
"We have to accept that responsibility and be ready for it," Richards said. "Everyone knows what's at stake, and we just have to go there and lay it on the line."
The Cardinals must win the tournament to get a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Last year Ball State was in a similar situation with a first-round bye and won the tournament, beating Western Michigan and Bowling Green 4-3. Richards said the bye would help the Cardinals from a physical standpoint.
Ball State's second-round opponent will be the winner of the Toledo-Buffalo match, and Richards said it is important for his team to focus on the semifinals, not looking ahead to the finals.
"The thing I remind our team of is Toledo gave us a very tough match at Toledo," he said. "We didn't beat Toledo decidedly at all."
Ball State beat Toledo 5-2 in the regular season. The final doubles match went to a tiebreaker before Ball State won the point. The Cardinals won four of the six singles' matches, all of which went two sets with Varga, Burnett and freshman Patrick Thompson winning first-set tiebreakers.
Richards said that Ball State's experience of winning the tournament in the past would play an important factor.
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