The slogan around Bloomington is "IU is red hot." If that's true, at least on Sunday, it was Cardinal red that was hot.-á
The No. 69 Ball State University men's tennis team demolished No. 60 Indiana 6-1 to earn their seventh straight victory and third consecutive win against a ranked opponent.
The Cardinals (9-3) won all three doubles matches in the contest. Matt Baccarani and Joe Epkey won 8-4 at No. 1 doubles, brothers Tony and Jarrod Epkey won 8-3 at No. 2 doubles, and Patrick Thompson and Joe Vallee defeated their opponents 8-5 in No. 3 doubles.
In singles play, the Cardinals took five of the six singles matches. Three of those wins came in straight sets from Baccarani, Tony Epkey and Jarrod Epkey.
Sophomore Jarrod Epkey said the team did not get overconfident after sweeping Indiana in doubles.
"We want doubles, but we don't want to be satisfied," Epkey said. "We have to act like we're going into [singles] 0-0."
Epkey also expressed that Tony and himself were starting to put their struggles behind them. "It was a really good match for me and Tony at doubles," Epkey said. "We started playing really well."
Coach Bill Richards said his team did a good job of not letting Indiana into the match.
"We really weren't threatened to any large degree," Richards said. "The matches we won were really convincing"
According to Richards, one of the major contributing factors for the Cards' victory on Sunday was the crowd.
"The crowd really helped us a lot," he said. "We had three times as many fans as Indiana did. We probably had more people at this match than we do at home." -á
Richards said when the Indiana players saw so many fans for Ball State it took a lot of wind out of their sails. One of the reasons for the large crowd support was the proximity of Greenwood, the Epkey siblings' home town.
The victory Sunday at IU was the Cardinals' second of the week. On Friday, Ball State went into West Lafayette and defeated No. 71 Purdue 5-2.
Against Purdue, the Cardinals took the doubles point of the match by winning both No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. All three doubles matches were tightly contested. The Cards No. 1 doubles duo of Baccarani and Thompson won their match 8-6, while Tony and Jarrod Epkey won 9-7. At No. 3 doubles, Joe Epkey and Vallee fell 8-4.
In singles play, four of the six matches went the full three sets. Baccarani, Joe Epkey, Thompson, and Jarrod Epkey all won their matches, with Joe Epkey and Thompson winning in straight sets. Purdue's Eric Hodgman and Matt Zollman were able to defeat Tony Epkey and Jose Perdomo in No. 3 and No. 6 singles, respectively.
Richards said he was proud of what his team accomplished this weekend.
"Obviously it was a great weekend for us," he said. "We had two great road wins, and we couldn't really ask for much more."
Jarrod Epkey was also excited about the team's play this weekend but cautioned about getting too excited.
"We have to stay focused," Epkey said. "We don't want to get satisfied."
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