At the start of the spring season, coach Bill Richards sat down with his team and ironed out a definite goal for the upcoming schedule: win the Mid-American Conference tournament.
The first step to accomplishing that goal comes when the Ball State University men's tennis team plays at Chicago State University Thursday in its first conference match of the season.
Senior Danny Vidal said he could barely put into words how ready he is to begin the final conference season of his career.
"You have no idea [how ready I am]," Vidal said. "It will be a great accomplishment [if we can win]. I'm definitely looking forward to winning my third MAC title in four years. Right now it's do or die time."
The Cardinals sit at 8-9 going into the conference season and have been on a rough road getting to this point.
Besides the first match of the fall, the Ball State Invitational, when freshmen Eduardo Pavia and Shaun Bussert took top honors, the Cardinals fell short of the top positions in the other five invitationals they entered.
As the spring season started, Richards learned he lost one of his two seniors, Jarrod Epkey, to a back injury he was continuously fighting throughout his career. With Epkey's senior leadership now limited to the sidelines, the Cardinals pursued a schedule that included four ranked opponents, going winless against them.
Recently the team learned No. 3 singles player Bret Berryman will be suspended indefinitely from the team after getting arrested on driving while intoxicated and underage consumption charges. With this most recent loss to the team, Ball State went from 11 to seven players.
Despite this year's tribulations, Richards said, the team is ready to start the match against the Cougars.
"Everyone is eager for the conference season to begin, since that is where our team goals have been," Richards said. "We've got a lot longer preseason than most teams, but we are ready to get started."
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