The American flag at the Cardinal Creek Tennis Center looked like it was about to come off the pole and fly away on Saturday. The Cardinals took on the Broncos of Western Michigan, but the wind might have been the real opponent.
"I'll take a little bit of responsibility," coach Kathy Bull said. "We haven't pushed the envelope, so to speak, to come out here and play on windy days. And, I mean playing in this wind, god, that's not fun for anybody. I think that Western Michigan has been out seven or eight times, and we've been out twice, and I think that showed a little bit."
The Broncos dominated the Cardinals, with only Melissa Roach coming close to the upset, splitting the first two sets with Frederika Girsang before falling in a super tiebreaker 10-4. Western Michigan (12-7, 5-0 in the Mid-American Conference) continued an impressive streak of five straight 7-0 wins.
"We've always had a lot of respect for Western Michigan," Bull said. "I picked them to finish second (in the MAC), and I still think they can play with Marshall and Eastern Michigan."
The loss to Western Michigan came off what is arguably the Cardinals (10-6, 4-2) biggest win of the season so far. In a long and dramatic match, the Cardinals were able to defeat Northern Illinois 4-3 at the Muncie Indoor YMCA.
"We had one of those classic Mid-American Conference matches," Bull said. "The doubles point lasted almost an hour and a half, which is unheard of."
The doubles point was close, with all three matches decided by two points. Roach and Katie Owens beat Branka Savic and Ivonne Andrade 9-7 while Jill Wieman and Jessica Thompson scored an 8-6 victory over Cassie Frake and Karrie Tyioran.
It started getting dramatic in singles when Roach and Thompson scored early wins while Jenny Batty, Owens and Wieman had tough losses. Then all eyes were on Susan Kelley.
The score was 3-3, and if Kelley won, the Cardinals would score a victory against a team they had struggled against the past two years. If Dani Martinez won, Northern Illinois would escape Muncie with a 4-3 victory.
"It came down to a senior and all the attention moved to the back, and Susan won the first set and stepped up with 50 people or so in there watching her, and she knew exactly what the story was," Bull said. "I couldn't have been happier for it to have been Susan Kelly to step up and do what she has to do."
The Cardinals will continue hosting conference foes next weekend when Miami and No. 48 Marshall will take on the Cardinals.
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