The No. 70 Ball State University men's tennis team lost its final match of the Boise State Invitational, but the team's overall performance was good enough for a fourth-place finish in the three-day, 16-team tournament.
The Cardinals started the tournament Thursday, defeating a pair of foes in Lewis and Clark State College and Central Florida. Against Lewis and Clark, the Cardinals won all six singles matches in straight sets for a 6-0 victory. The victory paired Ball Sate with a match against Central Florida. Against the Golden Knights the Cardinals won 4-2, with the top four singles players for the Cardinals all winning their matches. Matt Baccarani and Joe Epkey won their matches in three sets, while Tony Epkey and Patrick Thompson were victorious in straight sets.
The Cardinals' two victories on Thursday put them in the Friday semifinals against the No. 48 Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns. The Cardinals started out strong, winning the doubles point behind the strong play of Baccarani and the three Epkey brothers - Joe, Tony and Jarrod. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Ragin' Cajuns dominated singles play by winning five of the six matches, with Thompson the only Cardinal to earn a point in the 5-2 loss.
Coach Bill Richards thought his team should have done better in singles.
"We won the doubles point and then just didn't play as well in some of the singles matches as we needed to, to give ourselves a chance," Richards said.
Saturday, the Cardinals played No. 34 South Alabama and lost 5-1. Thompson was once again the only Cardinal to earn a point in singles.
"We played pretty well," Thompson said. "We had a couple of great opportunities to beat some highly ranked teams but just came out on the short end of the stick."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
