After more than a month of playing individual tournaments, it looked as though the Ball State University men's tennis team would have an opportunity to play as a team this weekend in the Texas Invitational.
However, the Cardinals will be missing one player, junior Jimmy Brannon, who will not make the trip to Austin, Texas. It will be the last tournament on the Cardinals' fall schedule after not playing together since the Milwaukee Classic on Sept. 21.
Despite Brannon's injury, coach Bill Richards said the team is ready to have nearly everyone together for the final time this fall.
"It is good to get everyone back together and not have our team split for an event," Richards said. "It's a bonus from a team standpoint, to have everyone in one place and pulling for each other."
Brannon injured his back last week in an off-court injury after falling off his bicycle. The junior is the latest Ball State player to struggle with an injury this season. Senior Jarrod Epkey's lower back and senior Danny Vidal's shoulder has kept them from being at full strength. Junior Joe Valley's foot kept him out of the first two matches of this season.
With a mostly healthy team, Richards said he is expecting any one person to step up for the final tournament.
"We just want to see how everyone does, it's still very much an individual thing," Richards said. "There are still a few guys trying to prove themselves as far as line-up consideration, and we are just looking for improvement right now."
Three weeks ago the Texas Invitational didn't exist on the Cardinal's schedule. Since three Ball State players attended the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's Regional Championships, the tournament was not considered a team event. The ITA regulates a program can schedule 25 team meets per season. Richards said he added the tournament in Texas as a last-minute addition to end the fall portion of the schedule.
"If we hadn't of added this tournament we would have been done two weeks ago and we wouldn't have had something to shoot for in practices," Richards said. "It's nice to have a tournament to prepare for rather than practicing simply for the sake of practicing. We are making quite a commitment to be there and hopefully everyone will lay it on the line down there."
Entering this tournament, the Cardinals have won more than half of their matches in tournament play when more than three members of the team attend the tournament.
Perdomo said it is important to end the season with a win in this tournament in order for the team to build momentum into the offseason.
"We have a month before we start dual-match season and it's the only thing we are going to remember before starting our dual-match season," Perdomo said. "So we need to end it on a high note. We want to go into our season with positiveness, not a loss."
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