Bobbing their heads between the final two matches Saturday, more than 25 fans didn't focus their attention on one moment until they heard a racket hit the ground.
Ball State University's No. 1 singles player Jose Perdomo hit a screaming forehand past the University of Toledo's Jared Miller to clinch the second seed in the Mid-American Conference tournament, in a come-from-behind 4-3 victory.
In celebration, Perdomo joyfully threw his racket in the air.
"Let's go," the junior from Puerto Rico said in Spanish as he pumped his fist.
Falling behind to Miller 5-2 in the first set, Perdomo rallied back to win the next three games and tied the match at 5-5. The players split the next two games forcing a tiebreaker that put Perdomo on top 7-6(6) in the first set.
After the opening win, Perdomo cruised to a 6-3 victory to beat Miller in the second set.
"I just said to myself to keep fighting, you are probably going to end up being the deciding match because you are taking so long," Perdomo said. "I just kept telling myself that the team needs you. I put myself in a leader position where I had to carry my team."
Not happy with his serve in the first set, Perdomo said, a minor adjustment gave him the edge.
"At the beginning I was a little erratic with my serve," Perdomo said. "I was not keeping my left arm up long enough. One of my coaches, Jarrod Epkey, told me to keep it up longer and just go for it. After that I started serving better throughout the match."
The Cardinals lost the early doubles point despite an 8-3 win at No. 1 doubles by the tandem of Perdomo and Jorge Rodriguez.
In an early hole, Ball State came out playing singles with a vengeance. The Cardinals won five out of six opening sets that helped No. 1 singles Perdomo, No. 2 singles Eduardo Pavia, No. 3 singles Bret Berryman and No. 6 singles Danny Vidal win in straight sets.
Despite the singles triumphs, coach Bill Richards said the team needs to work on its doubles performances before the MAC tournament next week.
"I was pretty disappointed in our doubles play," Richards said. "I thought about ripping them a little bit [in the match] but decided not to and they responded really well. Doubles is so unpredictable and frustrating because I really thought we had a good week of doubles practice, but for whatever reason we had a couple guys that seemed a little tight out there."
The Cardinals finished 4-1 in conference play, with their loss coming from No. 71 Western Michigan University two weeks ago. Their win on Saturday earned the team a second place seed in MAC tournament, which will be played at Northern Illinois University this weekend.
Coming in with an opening round bye, Ball State will play the winner of the Toledo and University at Buffalo match earlier that day. The winner of those two teams will play Western Michigan in the finals.
Richards said Saturday's match was a good precursor to the tournament and he likes his team's chances in DeKalb, Ill., this weekend.
"This was a huge match for Toledo," Richards said. "They haven't beaten us in recent history, and this was a year when I'm sure they thought they could come out and get a win. I think we felt a little pressure in doubles. Fortunately we loosened up and played more towards our capability in singles, which is what we need to do next weekend."
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