After winning seventeen Mid-American Conference Championships,coach Bill Richards knew that eighteen would be a little harder toearn. Ball State fell at No. 61 Western Michigan in a hard fought4-3 loss Saturday, their twelfth loss to a ranked team thisyear.
"It was a tough one," Richards said. "It's the kind of loss youdon't forget about for a while. For the most part we played prettywell. It was the type of match I expected -- both teams foughthard, (we) just couldn't get that fourth point."
Things began well for the Cardinals (12-12, 4-1 MAC), as theywon doubles point when Klint Knable and Paul Newman scored a 9-8victory over Dan Grupp and Jesse Orozco.
In singles, Matt Baccarani fell to No. 91 Ravi Pathanjali 6-1,6-3 and Newman fell to Justin Kates 6-3, 6-2. Knable and MattLaramore scored quick victories to give the Cardinals a brief 3-2lead before Michael Heule fell to Brady Crosby 6-4, 6-3.
"I think we could have given ourselves a chance," Richards said."The three matches we lost, we didn't really put ourselves in aposition to win. Anytime we're going to be in a close match, wehave to get in and make sure all of them were close. It's been ourshortcoming all year. We need to put ourselves in position to winall those matches, and then you'll win your share."
It came down to Patrick Thompson, who lost two hard fought sets,7-5, 7-6 (5) to Orozco, which gave the Broncos the victory.
"Had (Patrick) been able to covert it would have been anexciting finish," Richards said. "Unfortunately he wasn't able toget there."
The loss to Western Michigan placed the Cards second in the MAC.The Cardinals will face the winner of Northern Illinois and IPFW inthe MAC Tournament, which Ball State hosts.
"We can't look past that match," Richards said. "If we startthinking about Western Michigan, we forget about Northern Illinois.We have to make sure we take them one at a time. We will worryabout (the MAC Tournament Championship) when, and if, we getthere."
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