The men's tennis preseason begins this weekend when Ball State holds the Cardinal Invitational.
The match will not count in any final standings, but the players can still gain experience.
"We always want to go out and win matches, but it's more of an individual thing right now," coach Bill Richards said. "Once we see how we do this weekend, we will take a look at how each individual is, and we'll go from there."
Ball State will test its skill for the first time this year against 17 other schools, such as Butler, Indiana State, Xavier, Iowa and Marquette.
Mid-American Conference teams Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo and IPFW will also attend.
"We have had our inner-squad challenge matches," Richards said. "And we have a start on our starting lineup. We'll see how they perform this weekend and go from there."
The tournament will offer some tough competition. Butler's doubles team of Brandon and Kevin Gill is ranked 46th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason poll. Ravishankar Pathanjali of Western Michigan is ranked 72nd in the same poll.
Players will compete individually at this tournament.
"We use individual matches to prepare for dual-match season and to set up the lineup for the season," Richards said.
Some of this weekend's players might face each other in the future. Ball State will see half of the opponents in the invitational again in the regular season.
"We definitely keep a file on their strengths and weaknesses," Richards said. "So it will help down the road as we play them again, but the same goes for them.
The matches will begin today and run through Sunday at four locations: The Cardinal Creek Tennis Center, Woodworth Courts, Muncie Central High School and Muncie North Middle School.
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