Ball State University's first opponent of the Mid-American Conference Tournament is not a team the Cardinals normally like to see.
That opponent, Miami University, has slapped the Cardinals around quite a bit. The Redhawks have won 11 straight matches, and 29 of the last 30. Coach Kathy Bull said it does not bother her. In fact, she's embracing it.
"I think that's as good as a draw we could get because we weren't happy with the way we played them last time," Bull said. "I think they might be a bit distracted and they might be overlooking us a little bit because [the tournament's] at their place."
The last time these teams squared off, which was two weeks ago, Miami came away with a 6-1 win. However, three of the singles matches went into third-set super tiebreakers, with Miami winning two. The only win came at No. 1 singles, where Jessica Thompson defeated Katrina Lomidze 4-6, 6-1 and 11-9 in the super tiebreaker. Bull said doubles play would be the key to Friday's match.
"That was one of our worst doubles performances of the MAC season," she said. "Our No. 1 team just didn't get it going. We weren't happy with that effort at all. Our best day of tennis is still to be had, and that's a nice place to be right now."
Don't expect the Cardinals to mix up their lineup. Stephanie Farrar, who played No. 2 singles for the first half of the season, is still nursing an injured back and will only play doubles. With Farrar not playing singles, Emma Retter and Rachel Lemar have been forced to step up. Retter is 7-13 on the year, but only 1-6 since moving up to No. 5 singles. Lemar is 1-6 on the year at No. 6 singles. Both Retter's win at No. 5 and Lemar's win at No. 6 were forfeit victories against Northern Illinois University.
"We took both of them [on Wednesday] and gave them totally different strategies," Bull said. "They're going to play a lot of defensive tennis and a lot of high balls and hit them deep, and take very few risks. They don't really want to do that, but they're willing to do it for the team."
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