After what can be described as a rough off-season, the Cardinals may be looking forward to their MAC schedule and attempting to defend their MAC Championship.
Ball State will host Toledo at the Cardinal Creek Tennis Center Saturday and No. 36 Notre Dame on Sunday.
Toledo, whom the Cardinals (5-10) defeated 5-2 last year at Toledo, comes to Muncie with a 7-7 record.
"It's important for us to get off to a good start (in the MAC)," coach Bill Richards said. "So we're focusing completely on Toledo."
The Rockets have two shared opponents with the Cardinals, Dayton and Michigan State. Dayton lost to both teams, 4-3 to Toledo and 5-2 against Ball State. Michigan State defeated both teams; Toledo lost 7-0, while the Cardinals lost 5-2.
"I have a lot of respect for Toledo. They've been a middle-of-the-pack team in Conference in the last few years," Richards said. "We expect a tough match from them. We haven't had a great preconference season, so I'm sure they've seen that and they think they have a chance to score the upset, so we have to give them all we can."
No. 36 Notre Dame (11-7) is coming off of a 5-2 victory over No. 41 Michigan Tuesday, a Michigan team who dominated the Cards 6-1. The Fightin' Irish's arsenal includes No. 80 Luis Haddock.
Notre Dame also defeated Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan and Michigan State, all of whom have victories over the Cardinals.
"It's an opportunity to play a national-level team," Richards said. "Similar to a lot of national-level teams we've played this year and come up short against."
The Cardinals will begin their quest for an 18th MAC Championship on Saturday, but Coach Richards said he knows it won't be easy.
"I think there's a lot of good teams in the season. Western Michigan clearly has the best preseason. They have wins over Indiana and Michigan State and are a clear favorite going into the year That's a little abnormal for us." he said.
Richards said that they must start getting ready for the MAC this weekend.
"We have to get through Toledo and take it one week at a time. They returned most of their team last year and upset Western (Michigan) in semifinals last year," he said. "I think our challenges are great. We have to try to pick our level up. Obviously, we've had a lot of success in the conference. We feel like (the championship) is ours until someone takes it from us, but we have a lot of work to do to accomplish that."
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