Despite the vast differences between their situations, Ball State's tennis teams had similar Saturdays. The men's team fell 6-1 to Notre Dame while the women's team fell 6-1 to Eastern Michigan after defeating Toledo 5-2 on Friday.
The No. 62 Cardinal men (16-8) fell to the No. 32 Irish, but Klint Knable ensured that the Cardinals would not have their first 7-0 loss of the season in South Bend. After dropping his first set 6-2, Knable fought back to defeat Irackli Akhvlediani 2-6, 7-5, 10-7.
"He's such a fighter," coach Bill Richards said. "He was able to overcome some of the things that the other guys weren't able to overcome. I'm really proud of him. He beat a solid player."
The No. 25 duo of Matt Baccarani and Patrick Thompson continued its winning ways, defeating Brent D'Amico and Eric Langenkamp 8-5. However, Knable/Paul Newman and Matt Laramore/Brad Rhodes couldn't pick up a second win for the Cardinals, and Ball State dropped the doubles point for only the fourth time this year.
In singles, aside from Knable, it was very rarely close. Baccarani forced a tiebreaker in the first set but fell 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 to Stephen Bass. Laramore fell to No. 113 Barry King in straight sets. Newman, in his first match in the third singles spot, fell 6-0, 6-2.
Tony Epkey and Patrick Thompson fell 6-2, 6-2 and 6-4, 6-4 respectively.
"We got beat pretty bad," Richards said. "I think Notre Dame played their best match against us that anyone we have faced this year. I thought they were better than their ranking.
"We wouldn't have beat them one out of 20 times the way they played yesterday. I think the last few weeks have caught up with us. We're running on empty after three weeks of rigorous schedule."
The Cardinals face Western Michigan on Saturday for a share of the Mid-American Conference regular season championship.
The women, meanwhile, have nearly twice as many MAC foes to face and are currently in the thick of their conference season.
Against EMU, the Cards were able to take one doubles match from the Eagles, with Jessica Thompson and Katie Owens winning 8-4 over Elizabeth Syrova and Yana Parfenyuke.
Jessica Thompson and Katie Owens were the only two who had strong performances in singles as well. Jessica Thompson fell 7-5, 7-6 (7-2) to Parfenyuke, while Katie Owens scored the Cardinals' only point, defeating Flavia Micati 3-6, 6-2, 10-4.
"Owens had a pretty good weekend," coach Kathy Bull said. "She's been challenged a bit. She had pretty tough loss last weekend and needed to step up. She had a sound, smart singles match on both days."
Against Toledo, the Cardinals had an easier time, sweeping the doubles point and taking all but two singles matches.
In singles, Jessica Thompson, Haly Calderwood, Stephanie Farrar and Owens all scored wins, with not a single match lasting three sets.
"Friday was a match where we needed to step up and get back in to our old form," Bull said. "Our ultimate goal is to after the match be proud of our effort, and I think we were. We had good efforts from everyone."
Jessica Thompson, who was fighting an elbow injury, spent the most time on the court this weekend, as she was the last person to finish in both singles matches this weekend. After taking her normal No. 2 spot on Friday, she moved to the No. 4 spot and served underhand.
"It probably was because of her injury that she was out there so long," Bull said. "One of the skills she has is, whatever she has on a given day she uses. She realizes the mental part of the game and goes to every facet she can and uses it. That's kind of our signature brand of tennis."
The Cardinals take the next two weekends on the road before returning home for the MAC Championships.
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