The Ball State men's tennis team could not overcome history this weekend. Those Cardinals, who have struggled in Bloomington in years past, walked away with their second 7-0 loss of the season.
"It was definitely our worst match of the year," coach Bill Richards said. "Typically in years past, we have had a tough time playing at IU, we have always struggled at IU, we've never played well here. I was hoping we could change that this year."
They lost all six singles matches and two of the three doubles matches. The Cardinals were dominated by No. 53 Indiana.
"Today was a hard fought match," said IU's coach Ken Hydinger in an IU Sports press release. "Ball State came ready to play. We had to get through some tough doubles matches, but then we jumped out pretty early in singles."
The No. 62 Cardinals (5-4) double play was solid, never losing by more than two points to the Hoosiers (4-2). Matt Baccarani and Patrick Thompson fell to IU's Ryan Recht and John Stone 9-7, Matt Laramore and Brad Rhodes lost to Dmytro Istuganov and Jakub Praibis 8-6 while Klint Knable and Paul Newman handled Ryan McCarthy and Neil Kenner 8-3. The close losses were not enough to keep the Cardinals in the match.
"I definitely felt going into it, it was winnable. After we lost the doubles point, I'm not sure we carried the belief. Man to man we needed to," Richard said. "We could've won doubles. Knable and Newman won third, and we had a 5-2 lead at No. 1 (Baccarani/Thompson) before that one got away. That was a big turning point. We don't know what would have happened if we won (the doubles point) - how IU would have responded to that. It's an unknown, and we never will know that."
Singles went much of the same for the Cardinals. Rhodes, Knable and Baccarani all took their opponents to three sets, and two of Baccarani's sets went long.
"Baccarani lost a third set tie-breaker to a very good player, but other than that we were not playing well," Richards said. "Indiana is a good team, not to take anything away from them, but I feel that we matched up well against them. To come away with 7-0 loss is not acceptable."
That brings the Cardinals record to 5-4, with upcoming match-ups at No. 56 Michigan State, No. 38 Arizona and in Muncie against No. 46 Michigan. Ball State will also compete in the HEB Collegiate Team Championship in Corpus Christi, Texas.
"The tournament, obviously, is really tough and the schedule doesn't let up at all," Richards said. "We've been in that situation before, in years past, and we've always been able to recover as the season goes on."
Richards said playing tough opponents is part of Ball State tennis.
"We play tough teams, and my players have to accept that," he said. "That's why they came to Ball State, to play this schedule. We need to continue to improve and pick our level of play up."
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