Ball State's women's tennis team went on the road during its second-to-last weekend of the regular season, but the women could not return with a victory, falling to both Northern Illinois and Western Michigan.
The Cardinals (13-7, 3-4 Mid-American Conference) started the weekend on Friday against Northern Illinois. BSU was without the services of sophomore and No. 2 singles player Jessica Thompson, which put a number of players out of position. Katie Owens and Allison Thompson, who usually do not play together in singles, combined for the Cards' only doubles win.
In singes, the Cardinals came out firing. Five of the six matches went into three sets, with only BSU's Stephanie Farrar scoring a win in two sets, a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Daniela Martinez.
Senior Jenny Batty was the only other Card who was able to pull out a win, defeating Cassie Drake 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
"She hadn't played well against Drake in the past," coach Kathy Bull said. "When they got done, they looked like two punch-drunk fighters. It was a real battle.
"[Batty's] been a good leader. She's been trying to pull us through."
Haly Calderwood, Jennifer Pollack, Owens and Allison Thompson all fell in third sets.
"It was one of the longest, hardest fought matches we've had," Bull said. "We just came up short."
"On Friday, we got a lot of good performances," Bull said. "We had opportunities; we just faded a little bit. But they fought hard, and that was one of our goals was to fight hard on Friday -- and they did that."
On Saturday, things didn't get any better for the Cardinals, as they took on No. 53 Western Michigan. The Cardinals only took one set from the Broncos, a doubles match, and fell 7-0.
"We just ran out of gas," Bull said.
Batty and Farrar again shone for the Cardinals, defeating Maelynn Bernosky and Malena Remynse, winning 8-6.
The Cardinals move on to play Marshall and Miami on the road this weekend before returning home for the MAC championship.
"The toughest weekend is ahead of us," Bull said."It doesn't get any easier with Marshall and Miami coming up this weekend."
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