On Sunday, there was a steady wind and 40-degree weather, but it wasn't enough to move Ball State to the protection of the Muncie YMCA Indoor Tennis Center. The Cardinals came out to the Cardinal Creek Tennis Center and braved the weather to defeat conference-foe Buffalo.
"I think (the weather) did play a factor," coach Bill Richards said. "I think that poor playing conditions always are an equalizer, and I think that it favors the underdog. I really wanted to play outdoors. I wanted to put our players in kind of a challenging situation. I think we would have won a little easier if we had gone inside, but at this point in the season, in terms of toughness and competing, I think it was a positive."
The weather wasn't the only thing giving the Cardinals problems on Sunday; the Buffalo Bulls gave the Cardinals a tough challenge before eventually falling 6-1. After the Cardinals (9-11, 3-0 in the Mid-American Conference) won the doubles point, the Cardinals had six hard-fought singles matches against the Bulls.
"Well, we struggled, to be honest with you," Richards said. "I felt that Buffalo came out with a greater sense of purpose than we did. I felt that we weren't as ready to go as we needed to be. We got off to a couple bad starts in doubles and that carried over a little into singles. But fortunately, we were able to turn things around in most of the matches and get the job done."
Only Mike Heule and Patrick Thompson were able to score relatively easy victories over their opponents. Heule beat Josh Liederman 7-5, 6-1 while Thompson was victorious over Mike Rockman 6-0, 7-5. Matt Baccarani beat Buffalo's Randy Rocchio in two 7-5 sets, and Klint Knable and Matt Laramore both took three sets to vanquish their opponents.
"I give Buffalo a lot of credit, I really do," Richards said. "They've improved, they played very very hard, they competed extremely well, and I think we had a lot of guys out there today who didn't want to go out like we needed to.
"For the most part, we have been doing a pretty good job of that this year, but I felt we didn't do as well as we needed (against Buffalo). On the positive side, we were able to get the job done."
Earlier in the weekend, the Cardinals had vanquished the IPFW Mastodons 7-0 fairly quickly.
"This is a match where we did a pretty good job and, even though they were a weaker team, being ready to go, not really overlooking them and playing with a little more motivation," Richards said.
The long-time coach also thinks the NCAA basketball championship might have helped motivate his team.
"I think our guys wanted to get back in time for the tip-off of the basketball game," he said. "I think that maybe there was a little extra incentive there, so they can get back and watch that first game that started at 6 (p.m.). So I think we were on the court at 1 (p.m.) and off by three o'clock."
The Cardinals will end a stretch of four matches in six days tomorrow when they travel to Terre Heule to face the Sycamores.
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