Ball State was finally able to do something they haven't done in over a year: upset a ranked opponent. The Cardinals (6-3) finished a three match weekend with a 6-1 win over No. 68 Purdue.
"We had a good weekend," Richards said. "We played a very, very solid match. I thought everyone did a great job. We needed this one to keep moving forward, to get back up there in the rankings, to get up to the level where we think this team can be."
The Cardinals scored two victories earlier in the weekend, over Indiana State 5-2 and Eastern Kentucky 7-0.
The Cardinals lost their first doubles point of the year against a Indiana State team that may have caught the Cardinals off guard.
"Maybe stubbing our toe in doubles against Indiana State was a wakeup call," Richards said. "We talked about that, and maybe we ended up turning a negative into a positive."
After losing the doubles point the Cardinals fought back, and won five of the six singles point to secure the 5-2 win.
Against Eastern Kentucky, the Cardinals were hardly challenged with only three of the regular starters making appearance in singles.
The Cardinals had dropped games to No. 5 Illinois, No. 39 Northwestern and No. 46 Michigan State before facing No. 68 Purdue this weekend.
The Cardinals began by winning their eighth doubles point of the season, with the No. 56 duo of Matt Baccarani and Patrick Thompson and Klint Knable and Paul Newman picking up the wins to secure the point.
"The key today was the doubles point," Richards said. "It's really easy to say that, I know, I say it a lot. But sometimes the way the doubles point is won or lost can set the tone for the rest of the match. To be down, we were down 7-4 at third doubles and Newman and Knable fought back to win 9-7, and I thought that some of their players didn't react to that from a coaches standpoint as well as you'd like."
Then the Cardinals lit it up in singles, winning five of the six singles matches. Only Matt Baccarani, who was facing No. 76 Paul Rose, failed to win, dropping two 6-4 sets.
The rest of the Cardinals took care of business, with Newman, Thompson, Knable and Matt Laramore all winning in straight sets. Epkey took three sets to score his win.
"I have to admit that it came as easy as it did today," Richards said. "When you're playing schedule like ours you don't get too many things coming your way. This one came a little easier than I expected."
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