After a 4-1 deficit in doubles to the University of Indianapolis on Saturday, the tandem of Joe Vallee and Brett Berryman started getting stared down by their onlooking coach Bill Richards.
Shortly following a talk with the coach, the duo won seven of their next nine sets securing the doubles point for Ball State University.
"We came out ready to go, but things weren't going our way," Berryman said. "It was our lack of focus that got us into the hole. Joe and I had a talk about it at 5-1 and decided to get back into it."
Using that doubles win to mirror the start to their season, the Cardinals used both 7-0 sweeps in this weekend's double hitter against Valparaiso University and Indianapolis to move their record to 3-3.
"It's good to get some wins and it was disappointing losing to the teams we did," Berryman said. "After the double hitter it's a good feeling getting a few wins under our belt."
In doubles play against Valparaiso, the No. 1 match of Jose Perdomo and Jorge Rodriguez defeated Mike Shideler and Mike Wagner 8-4, while the No. 2 combination of Eduardo Pavia and Danny Vidal, who had 11 aces on the day, took down Alex Lay and Tom Litscher 8-6 to win the point for Ball State.
The doubles action against Indianapolis followed suit. Danny Vidal and Jimmy Brannon had an early 8-4 victory, while Shaun Bussert and Jorge Rodriguez also coasted to an 8-2 win against the Greyhounds.
The Cardinals finished every singles match in straight sets with the exception of the No. 1 singles match between Jose Perdomo and Mike Shideler, which Perdomo won 6-7 (4), 6-0, 1-0 (3).
Despite the sweep, Richards said Valparaiso and Indianapolis aren't the caliber of teams Ball State should be surprised to win against.
"We just beat two teams we should be able to beat," Richards said. "We just can't get too excited over the matches we played today."
The double hitter caused the Cardinals to sway from their normal duel match line up. The most changes came against Indianapolis, as No. 1 doubles became Berryman and Vallee instead of Pavia and Perdomo. With Vallee as his normal partner, the move caused freshman Shaun Bussert to play with Rodriguez.
Pavia moved up one spot to No. 1 singles as Perdomo moved down to No. 2 for the match.
"We just felt it was important to make a few switches in our singles lineup to keep people honest so they couldn't predict who was going to be playing where," Richards said. "Our whole approach to doubles is that we are going to experiment and we are going to try different combinations. As we get closer to our conference season we are going to be doing a lot of that."
Ball State's next contest is on the road this weekend at University of Washington where they will battle the University of California-Santa Barbara and Washington in consecutive days.
Coming off of the double hitter sweep, Berryman said the team wishes to ride the confidence to compete on the West Coast this weekend.
"All of our guys got to play and we all got wins," Berryman said. "The wins will give us a confidence boost going into the upcoming games so we can show that we can compete with better teams."
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
