Ball State men's tennis team travels this weekend for it's only road trip of the Mid-American Conference season.
The No. 61 Cardinals (14-6 1-0 MAC) face Buffalo (5-7, 1-1) on Friday and Toledo (6-9, 0-1) on Sunday as the conference season continues.
"This weekend is one of those weekends where we have to make sure you are ready to play," head coach Bill Richards said. "Just because we're playing teams that aren't ranked and aren't Big Ten teams, we have to make sure we don't have any letdowns."
Buffalo faced Toledo last weekend and scored a 4-3 win over the Rockets. Last year, the Cardinals defeated the Rockets 7-0 and the Bulls 6-1.
While Toledo and Buffalo have regularly been in the bottom half of the conference standings, Richards isn't going to take either school lightly.
"Everyone in college tennis is good; everyone can play, so I think it's going to be, as I always say, an attitude weekend," he said. "As long as we do the things we've been doing all year, we'll be fine. But if we look ahead and don't play with the sense of purpose that we've been playing with, then we'll be in trouble."
Because of Ball State's history of success in the MAC, Richards thinks that his team has become a target for other conference schools when the schedule comes out.
"When you look at the history of our program and the number of championships we've won," he said, "there is no question we've been the dominate team, and there's a responsibility that comes with that, and our players have to be up to fulfilling that responsibility.
The BSU women's team (11-3, 1-0) will begin a four-match homestand this weekend against the Zips (6-11, 0-2) on Friday and continue when it hosts the Bulls (5-2, 1-1).
"We need to be just a little mentally more focused," coach Kathy Bull said. "I think it's kind of that time of year. We've been at it for about eight months, and our mental sharpness is faded. I think it's all about relaxing and playing our game."
"We kind of expect that Buffalo will be a little bit tougher than Akron, but you have to take each of these one at a time, so right now, all of our focus is on the Zips."
The Cards started their MAC season against Bowling Green last weekend by scoring a hard-fought 4-3 win.
The young Cardinals squad will host four conference home games this season, all in a row, before ending with a four-game road trip that includes trips to conference powers Western Michigan and Marshall.
"I think these are huge," Bull said. "Every step needs to be really contemplated. It is not possible to overlook these steps or else your whole house of cards will fall over, so to speak. They're very dangerous teams. They're just going to go after it, and they can really get on a roll and really take you down."
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