The Ball State University men's tennis team will see tough competition at the Tom Fallon Invitational at Notre Dame. They look to improve from their home invitational last weekend. At this weekend's invitational, the Cardinals will play nationally ranked singles players from Drake, Michigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue and Wisconsin.
The Cardinals won the top flights of the invitational at home with Matt Baccarani taking singles and Tony and Jarrod Epkey taking doubles.
Unlike the home invitational, Notre Dame's Invitational will allow for changes to be made after the first day.
"This will be a different format, we can change doubles and switch singles in our eight divisions and we can make substitutions," coach Bill Richards said.
This will also be a test to the team, as the tournament features five schools that are regularly in the national rankings.
"We had a pretty good weekend last weekend, but this will be a good test for us against better teams, such as Big Ten Schools," Richards said.
A "hidden dual" match format will be used, which means teams will play simulated dual matches, but no official team scores will be recorded. Due to all the flights (or divisions), this invitational will be rather confusing compared to other competitions, Richards explained. The Cards look to win as many individual matches as they can.
Due to last weekend's invitational being physically demanding, the tennis team had lightened up practices this week and looks to be at full strength on Friday, Richards said.
Seniors Baccarani and Patrick Thompson will play doubles together in a couple of matches, unlike at the home invite this year where they each played with newcomers. Baccarani and Thompson are ranked No. 16 in the nation.
Jimmy Brannon will not make the trip to Notre Dame and Danny Vidal may not play Friday due to heat exhaustion suffered at practice this week. He may play Saturday.
Action for the tennis team will begin at 9 am Friday and will go through Sunday. Coach Richards says he is looking forward to the solid competition the invitational will provide.
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