Of late, playing tennis at Illinois is becoming a tough task. No. 1 Illinois has won their last 22 home events. Their 21st win came against the Cardinals Friday evening, which tied the school record.
"It was a great atmosphere," sophomore Matt Baccarani said. "A lot of support for their team, it's a really great atmosphere to play in."
The No. 63 Cardinals (2-1) came into Illinois for the Illini's first match of the season, and Illinois showed Ball State why they were the defending champions by defeating the Cards 7-0.
"We weren't ready for their pace," head coach Bill Richards said. "They're a very strong, powerful team that comes at you with a lot of power. Big guys who serve very big and just tear the cover off the ball."
Still, Richards said the team has several areas where they performed well.
"I thought we came ready to play, and we competed as hard as we could," he said. "We went into the match prepared well with good attitudes."
The Cardinals began the evening with three losses in doubles, with Matt Baccarani/Patrick Thompson falling to Phil Stolt/Brian Wilson 8-5 in their first collegic match since the NCAA Championship.
"I felt like we did OK in our doubles match," Baccarani said. "They're a really good team."
Matt Laramore/Mike Heule lost to No. 14 Michael Calkins/Chris Martin 8-2, and Klint Knable/Paul Newman fell to Ryler DeHeart/Pramod Dabir 8-4. Coach Richards points out that these matches were close to those of No. 9 Texas A&M's Saturday match against Illinois.
"We got in many of the matches, and really stayed right even at No. 1 doubles (Baccarani/Thompson) and No. 3 doubles (Knable/Newman)," Richards said. "We got to 5-4 at 3 before we got broke and 6-5 at No. 1 before we got broke. We got really overpowered at No. 2 doubles."
Brad Rhodes was sick and unable to take his position at doubles.
"He has been playing doubles the whole time," Richards said. "Against a team like that, any little thing can hurt."
The Cardinals will continue their season next weekend, heading to Purdue to take on the No. 53 Boilermakers.
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