Despite two straight home victories last weekend, freshman Eduardo Pavia couldn't help but to look ahead to Friday's match against Purdue University.
"It may be the most important game confidence wise for the team this season," Pavia said.
Purdue is the last Big Ten team the Ball State University men's tennis team will play this season. Currently sitting winless against Big Ten teams, the Cardinals have yet to score a dual-match point in the four matches. In this year's schedule against the Big Ten, Ball State has played No. 8 University of Illinois and No. 64 Michigan State University, which are two of four ranked teams the men have played this season.
"We keep talking about improving and getting better, and this is an opportunity to show it," coach Bill Richards said.
The in-state rivalry has been intense the last three years, Richards said. Ball State won the mid-season matchup 6-1 in 2005 and 5-2 in 2006.
The win two years ago was the first time since 2001 the team playing at home did not come out on top.
However, last season's 4-3 loss proved to Richards that his match against the Boilermakers will be tough, he said.
"Anytime you play a team each year, I think a rivalry develops," Richards said. "We always have a pretty intense, hard-fought match against [Purdue}."
Coming off of the two-game winning streak, Richards said this weekend's match against the Boilermakers would act as a benchmark to show his team's improvement.
"I thought we did a decent job last weekend," Richards said. "From the standpoint of showing improvement, we have to put ourselves in a position to win this match [Friday]."
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