When coach Kathy Bull predicted that Saturday's match againstBowling Green was going to be a battle, she wasn't kidding. Threeand a half hours of tennis later, Ball State came out with a 4-3victory against Bowling Green at the Cardinal Creek TennisCenter.
"It doesn't matter how good of a year, how poor of a year you'vehad," Bull said. "When those two teams go head to head, there'ssomething that comes out of everybody, I mean both them andourselves."
After the Cardinals (11-8, 5-4 Mid-American Conference) lost thedoubles point 9-8 with a 9-7 tiebreaker, they needed to win foursingles matches to avenge their 4-3 loss to Bowling Green lastyear.
Melissa Roach came out and dominated Lisa Maloney, winning 6-1,6-0.
"I've played her for the past three years more or less, so Iknew exactly what to expect," Roach said. "I just didn't want tomess around with her cause I knew she's a bit of a hothead, sothat's that. I just went out and did my business really."
A short time later, Jessica Thompson scored a 6-2, 6-3 victoryover Heidi Romer and Jenny Batty suffered a 6-3, 6-3 defeat toSusie Schornberger, tying the score at 2-2. Susan Kelley finishednext with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Cam Benjamin to give theCardinals the 3-2 lead, with Jill Wieman and Katie Owens about togo into a third set.
Wieman didn't know it, but with Owens losing the first threepoints, the match was on her shoulders. She won a hard fought 6-7(5), 6-0, 7-5 victory over Gaby Coello to give the Cardinals thewin.
"I thought Katie and I both had to win; I was kind of trying towatch her match from the corner of my eye," Wieman said. "Thenafter I got done, I saw everybody jumping up and down, and I thinkI kind of figured it out. I was like, 'Oh, that must have been it-- did we win?' I was kind of almost glad I wasn't sure. I mean, Iknew I had to win either way, but I didn't know it was absolutelydependent on that match."
That secured the victory for the Cardinals and gave them theirfirst winning season in the MAC since 2001. Their victory overBowling Green might have been their hardest fought victory of theseason.
"I couldn't be happier," Bull said. "And, you know what, I canhonestly say that if it would have gone the other way, I would havebeen really, really proud of how hard we fought. We haven't foughtthat hard all year. No way, no way have I seen those eight womenfight that hard as they did today. I couldn't be more proud."
Roach, Kelley and Wieman all scored victories to lead theCardinals to victory in what will likely be their last competitivematch at Ball State.
"I guess I have to be probably the proudest of my two seniors,"Bull said. "Mel and Susan to be able to close out their careerswith victories like that, and actually Weiman won't be returningfor us, she's leaving a year early to go to dental school, so forthe match to fall in her hands to finish out your home career likethat here is pretty awesome."
The Cards will move on the the MAC tournament, where they willbe the fifth seed and take on fourth-seeded Miami.
"We have goals; we wanted to improve from last year," Roachsaid. There were three teams that we really, really, really wantedto down: Miami, Bowling Green, (and) Northern Illinois. And we gottwo out of the three, and now we play Miami. We play Miami in theconference (tournament), and we're gonna take them down. My wordsof wisdom are: 'Miami beware,' cause we ain't messing with themthis time."
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