After playing in a number of tournaments in the past two months,a coach might want some time off.
But women's tennis head coach Kathy Bull said she would be morethan happy to keep playing.
"I still wish I had one more weekend to play," she said. "Whenyou have a good weekend, you really just want to keep playing, andnow we don't really have a chance to do that."
The team spent the last weekend of its preseason in Kalamazoo,Mich., at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regionals, where,Bull said, they had an "above-average tournament."
"I thought our brightest spot was Melissa Roach in main draw,"she said. "She just killed the Western Michigan player in the firstround, and she faced the No. 3 player and fought a great closematch."
Roach loss to Illinois' Jennifer McGaffin, who was ranked 44thin the country in the ITA's preseason poll.
Roach was the only Ball State player in the main draw. JillWieman, Katie Owans and Jessica Thompson all fell in theprequalifying round for singles.
The doubles draw went similarly, with Roach and Owans advancingto the second round of singles before falling to a team fromMichigan. Wieman and Thompson drew the No. 44 doubles team in thecountry in the first round and lost.
"Winning any round at ITA Regional tournament is really tough,"Bull said. "I think we really turned the corner in doubles."
The team will begin off-season work next weekend at Bull'srequest.
"This week we'll have private meetings, one-on-one meetings anda team meeting to conclude it," she said. "The fall season is aboutfinding strength and weaknesses, and if you're smart, you don'twait till January. You start to work on those weaknesses rightaway."
The official season has not even begun, but Bull said she isproud of her team and the progress they've made.
"Strategy and consistency are two necessities in women's tennis.Physically we really improved in our consistency level. We workedhard on consistency this fall, and that paid off for us," she said."We also taught our young players to use their brains outthere."
The team will begin action again in late January.
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