Will O'Hargan | Asst. Sports Editor
Last season, Ball State closed the Mid-American Conference season with a 4-3 win over Bowling Green to clinch a fifth-place seed in the MAC tournament. This year, the Cardinals (11-3, 1-0 in the MAC) started their season against the Falcons (7-5 0-1 in the MAC). Also, while Ball State was again able to score a close and hard-fought 4-3 victory, things were different this time around.
Last year, Melissa Roach, Jill Wieman and Susan Kelley scored three of the Cardinals' four points to close their careers at Ball State. This year, Stephanie Farrar and Jennifer Pollack began their MAC careers with victory.
"We said it was going to be close, and we said it was going to be hard-fought," coach Kathy Bull said. "It ended up being one of our classic battles between the two programs."
The Cardinals started the match by "stealing" the doubles point, according to coach Kathy Bull. Ball State's doubles tandems of Jenny Batty and Farrar and Jessica Thompson and Katie Owens were able to score 8-6 wins to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
In singles, the Cardinals dropped five of the six first sets, with only Farrar starting out well in singles.
"Bowling Green came out of the gate in singles and started cleaning our clock," Bull said. "They were cleaning us up pretty good. I give our team a lot of credit; they stayed in there and kept fighting and were able to get the win."
Batty and Haly Calderwood dropped straight sets to BGSU, while Farrar scored the first win for the Cards in singles to bring the score to 2-2.
Jessica Thompson dropped a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 decision to Ashley Jakupcin, which left the match up to freshman Jennifer Pollack and junior Katie Owens.
Pollack fought back after dropping the first set 6-2 to take the next two sets 7-5, 6-2. Owens also fought back from a first-set loss to win 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 to give the Cardinals the 4-3 win.
"It's a pretty big step for us," Bull said. "We're still very young. To be able to start off like that will hopefully give us the right attitude and right momentum to get into things.
"A lot of my players didn't have their A-game when we got out on the singles court. I don't know what that was, if it was emotional or mental, but they fought though it. The nice thing is that a lot of players have stepped up. Farrar's been fairly consistent, but this week it was Owens and Pollack."
The Cardinals continue the MAC season this weekend with matches versus Akron and Buffalo.
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