Another week off may have been more beneficial.
The Ball State University's women's tennis team traveled to Chicago to take on DePaul University and left with a 7-0 loss.
"They hit such a heavy deep ball," coach Kathy Bull said. "We came out with a little uncertainty. We waited to see what would happen instead of making plays and you can't do that at this level."
Sophomore Jennifer Pollack said it was a hard fought match.
"The match was a lot closer than the score," she said. "A lot of the players played very tight sets. We were making one more step towards becoming a better team."
Doubles play, typically a strong point for Ball State, was troublesome as the No. 1 team of Jessica Thompson and Haly Calderwood were dominated 8-0 by DePaul's Beatrix Csordas and Gergana Ganeva. It didn't get much better from there as the No. 2 team of Katie Owens and Stephanie Farrar lost 8-4 and No. 3's Pollack and Rachel Lemar lost 8-3. Bull said she was hoping for a better performance from her team.
"I thought we could get a couple points off of them," Bull said. "We didn't start out sharp playing doubles. My number ones got pushed back and couldn't find any rhythm."
In singles play, the Cardinals won just one set, registered by No. 5 Owens. Bull said her team could've done some damage, but just didn't get it done.
"We played some better singles," Bull said. "One and two were very competitive. Steph [Farrar] was playing real well till she took a tumble and hurt her back. Calderwood had a charge and got it back. Owens let one slip through her fingers."
Calderwood lost 6-3, 7-6, Owens lost 7-6, 3-6, 1-0, and Pollack fell to Dunja Antunovic 6-2, 6-1.
"She was a lefty, which makes it harder," Pollack said. "We don't practice against lefties, so it was hard to transition in the match. It made it a lot harder on our service games."
Farrar lost to Ganeva 7-6, 6-0. Farrar injured her back during her singles match when she lost her footing and fell to the ground. Bull said Farrar's back will be evaluated tomorrow morning and is hoping that it's nothing more than a bruise and some stiffness.
The Cardinals' next match is Wednesday at the University of Cincinnati. Bull hopes it is just another stepping stone to making her squad better.
"We battled and we fought," Bull said. "We're still just trying to get over that hump."
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