The Cardinals faced no challenges or problems yesterday whenthey hosted Wright State. The Cardinals easily turned away theundermanned Raiders, taking the match 7-0.
"It's one of those matches where there's not a whole lot to besaid," coach Bill Richards said.
Wright State (2-18), which has had personal problems of late,had only five players available and healthy for their matchup withBall State (7-11 overall, 1-0 in the Mid-American Conference), soonly two singles and five doubles matches were played.
"We held (Matt) Baccarani and (Matt) Laramore out of singles,"Richards said. "They were short a player and have had some problemsthe last few weeks. It was unfortunate that that was the case, butwe did what we had to do to split the playing time and get everyoneinvolved."
And everyone did get involved. Every member of the men's tennisteam played in either singles or doubles this weekend, includingJohn Gramelspacher, who played his first doubles match since thefall, when he teamed up with Baccarani to dominate Wright State'sScott Hayden and Pier Angelo Presti 8-1.
Still, the Cards know they just had to maintain control of thematch.
"We just had to make sure we didn't let down and played withsense of purpose," Richards said. "And I thought we did that. Wegot through the match without any roadblocks."
In singles, meanwhile, Patrick Thompson moved up to the top spotfor the first time in his career. He had some problems with WrightState's Kevin Teufel, but eventually defeated the Raider 6-3,6-4.
"Well, we expect that," Richards said. "That's not to takeanything away from out opponent. But moving up a couple spotsagainst a team like that, it is not unexpected for our players todo that."
The Cardinals will carry momentum from the victory into thisweekend when they will face IPFW (7-8) on Saturday and Buffalo(6-9, 0-1 in the MAC) on Sunday.
"I would expect them to be a little deeper and a little strongerdown the lineup (than Wright State)," Richards said. "I do thinkIPFW has a lot more balance and a lot more depth, and I expect atougher match from them."
Still, Richards said that Buffalo will be the harder match ofthe two.
"Just based through results, Buffalo is, on paper, definitelythe stronger of the two teams," Richards said. "(On a level with)Toledo or maybe a bit stronger than them. Even though the score wasdecisive (against Toledo) the players were competitive, and Iexpect (Buffalo) to go much of the same."
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