Since the Cardinal Creek Tennis Center opened in 1977, the Ball State University tennis teams have won a combined 19 conference titles and had 71 first-team all-conference selections.
After 30 years, the facility is getting its first major renovation.
The $850,000 construction project on the Ball State men's and women's team tennis courts, located north of the Duck Pond, started last week, and is scheduled to be completed Aug. 3, Jim Lowe, director of engineering and operations, said.
The renovation includes replacing the current tennis courts' asphalt and installing a drainage system flowing into the Duck Pond. The court's light poles will be replaced, and a new lighting system will be installed.
"We're pretty excited," women's coach Kathy Bull said. "It's going to be a hectic summer, but the renovation is long overdue."
Cardinal Creek has 12 courts, and the facility hosts two annual collegiate tournaments in addition to Ball State home matches.
Bull said she's thrilled Ball State is putting money toward the renovations.
"We've been asking for several years," Bull said. "With the naked eye, the courts look nice, but when you really know the court, you know it needs work."
Ball State is the third Mid American Conference school to renovate its tennis facility since 2005. The University of Toledo completed construction in 2005 and Western Michigan University finished in 2006.
Bull said universities vary in how long they wait before repairing the tennis facilities.
"Ours [courts] should have been attended to five or seven years ago," she said. "It's a little unusual to go this long, but it's not a precise science and our courts were a little behind."
The biggest reason for the renovations are the cracks on the court's surface, Richards said.
"The subsurface had deteriorated so badly the surface was cracking," Richards said. "You couldn't do anything to fix those courts but tear them up and start over."
Lowe said he is happy the courts lasted more than 30 years, but it was time for the facility to be renovated.
"We've reached the point where the cracking can't be stopped," he said. "We've tried repairing, but water had gotten underneath and completely destroyed the subsurface."
Richards said this is the project's first phase, with phase two including new restrooms and team rooms. No date has been set for the second phase, but Richards said he hopes it will be completed by next summer.
Cardinal Creek is one of two Ball State athletic facilities being renovated this summer. Scheumann Stadium is undergoing a more than $13 million renovation.
"This university has a good vision and a long term plan," Bull said. "There are some other facilities [Ball State has] good visions for, but [the projects] are five to ten years out from being completed."
Bull said her players are excited about the renovations, and the better court surfaces may help some of their performances.
In the 2006-07 season, the women's tennis team was eliminated in the conference tournament semi-finals, and the men's team lost in the MAC Tournament championship match.
"You take a lot of pride in what your facility looks like," Bull said. "As a player, you're not going to have to look to see if your foot is in a crack or try to avoid a water puddle."
Bull said Ball State's renovations will make Cardinal Creek the conference's top facility.
"As far as the facility's design, the last two years, and the quality of play, we were middle of the road," Bull said. "The new, fresh look and better courts will make it the best facility in the MAC in a couple of years."
A committee including Bull, Richards, Lowe and athletic director Tom Collins helped plan the renovation, Bull said.
"We went through it piece by piece," she said. "[Richards and I] said what we liked and didn't like about the facility."
Despite the tennis courts' new lights, Richards and Bull said they won't schedule night matches because of the weather and MAC rules requiring conference matches to start at 1 p.m.
In the 2006-07 season, the men's tennis team played 12 of 13 non-conference matches between Jan. 13 and March 14. The women's tennis team had all 12 non-conference matches scheduled from Jan. 24 to March 17.
"You would like to have night matches, but the weather doesn't warrant that and it puts that out of our realm," Richards said.
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