Ball State had always been in the Mid-American Conference Tournament finals, since the event began in 1997. Unfortunately, history was not on the Cardinals' side this weekend at the Cardinal Creek Tennis Center.
In the second round, the second-seeded Cards fell to Northern Illinois 4-3 after leading by 3-0 at one point.
"I give all the credit to Northern Illinois; they're a great team, and we lost a close one," coach Bill Richards said. "We're not where we want to be; we're not where we need to be."
The Cards started off hot by winning the doubles point. Matt Baccarani and Patrick Thompson scored an 8-5 victory over Willy Gali and Aaron Forsberg, while Klint Knable and Paul Newman won 8-3 over Kack Komar and Stephen Guntly.
In singles play Matt Laramore, Knable and Newman won their respective first sets, but all three would have to win the second set to give the Cardinals the victory.
"I think that if we could have won another one of the first sets of singles, that would have given us enough momentum to get over the hump," Richards said.
While Newman and Knable both won their second sets 6-3, Laramore fell 6-2 in his second set. Baccarani, Thompson, and Mike Heule all fell in two sets.
All eyes were on Laramore for the next hour, as he battled Northern's Juan-Pablo Barriga, with the winning team advancing to play No. 58 Western Michigan. Laramore won the first point before Barriga won the next three. Laramore was able to tie it up twice, at 3-3 and 5-5, but he would then give up two straight points to Barriga, giving the Huskies the victory.
"I'm proud of Matt Laramore; there is no one I'd rather have out there with the match on his shoulders than Matt," Richards said. "Anytime you lose the last match there's a tendency to put the blame for the loss on yourself, but Matt was the least of the reasons we lost that match."
The loss ended the Cardinals' season, but not any careers.
"On a positive side, we have no seniors," Richards said, "and maybe this will leave a bad enough taste in their mouth enough that maybe they'll work practice harder in the summer."
Western Michigan went on to win the championship, and earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Championship.
The loss was the Cardinals 13th of the season, but their first to an unranked opponent.
"There's not much to say, really," Richards said. "It's a tough loss, but that's sports. If you can't deal with that, you shouldn't be a coach or an athlete."**2&-¦-¦"V?*mtennis 4.26DNEditorial**2,+â-Å2AUDT
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