Ball State University once again has an opportunity to make a splash nationally. This time, though, it is in men's tennis.
The Cardinals will have a chance to knock off nationally ranked teams this weekend in the Notre Dame Fall Invitational as three of the participating schools finished last season in the top 75 rankings.
"They are all very good teams," coach Bill Richards said. "The Notre Dame tournament is similar to the Milwaukee tournament earlier this year."
The Notre Dame Invitational includes No. 29 the University of Notre Dame, No. 33 University of Wisconsin and No. 55 Harvard University. Ball State fellow Mid-American Conference foe Western Michigan University will also compete.
In the Milwaukee Classic on Sept. 19, Ball State played matches against a Big Ten school, Northwestern University, and a Big East school, Marquette University.
Ball State has recent experience playing ranked teams as seniors Jose Perdomo and Jorge Rodriguez faced ranked competition last weekend at a tournament in Tulsa, Okla.
Rodriguez won his first round match and then lost to a player in the second round from Ohio State University. Perdomo had a first-round bye, defeated an opponent from Tulsa University and then lost to a player from the University of Miami.
Ohio State, Tulsa and Miami were nationally ranked in the top 19 at the end of last season.
Perdomo and Rodriguez are the two seniors on a team with two sophomores and five freshmen.
"We have to improve some things on our game and try to have a good weekend," Richards said.
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