Teams from all over the Midwest came to Muncie for the BallState Fall Invitational, but none of them had enough power at thetop of the lineup to stop the Cardinals.
Matt Baccarani won the top flight of singles and teamed withPatrick Thompson to complete the Flight A sweep, a feat not oftenaccomplished at this tournament.
"I think the upper part of our lineup was very strong," coachBill Richards said. "We showed a lot of strength in the top in thelineup."
Baccarani had to beat two of the top players from defendingMid-American Conference champion Western Michigan, Brady Crosby andJose Orozco, to win the Flight A title. He defeated both handily intwo sets, holding both opponents to under three games a set.
"With Matt, it's kind of interesting," Richards said. "Hestuggled his first couple of matches, then on the second and thirdday really picked up his level of play. He really had a greatweekend, he played at a really high level (Saturday andSunday)."
The doubles tandem of Baccarani and Thompson had similarsuccess, with their closest match coming in the quarterfinals onthe first day against IPFW's Nabil Mourad and Landry Nzudie.
"It's been a while since anyone won the A-flight in both singlesand doubles, so I give Baccarani and Thompson a lot of credit,"Richards said.
The Cardinals didn't win any of the lower flights, despitehaving 10 players playing this weekend.
"Some of them lived up to what my expectations were, and somedidn't," Richards said. "It's still early in the year so it's not amajor concern so far. On balance I would say we had a goodtorunament. It could have been a great tournament with a few morewins."
The B-Flight saw mixed results, with both Klint KNable and PaulNewman falling to Western Michigan's Tim Bradshaw, who ended upwinning the tournament. Knable and Newman both took Bradshaw into athird set tiebreaker.
"They both easily could have won," Richards said. "Not to berepetitive, but the strength at top is encouraging."
Flight B doubles went much of the same for the Cardinals, withthe teams of Knable and Newman, and Matt Laramore and Tony Epkeyfalling in semifinals.
The Cardinals struggled in the remaining flights in both singlesand doubles. Ball State, with the exception of Laramore, will havea three-week break before returning to action. Laramore will becompeting in the ITA All American Pre-Qualifying Tournament.
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