On the right side of the Cardinal Creek Tennis Courts, the Northern Illinois University men's tennis team celebrated a comeback victory.
On the left side, the Ball State University men's tennis team huddled in a circle wondering how it squandered a 3-0 lead. That was the scene after Saturday's 4-3 loss for Ball State in its regular season finale.
"People just choked to death," coach Bill Richards said. "We just had a bunch of people who couldn't come through under the pressure. We've certainly seen it before."
The Cardinals won the doubles point and won two quick singles matches thanks to senior Jorge Rodriguez and freshman Cliff Morrison. With a 3-0 lead, the Cardinals appeared to have the match under lock and key as players and coaches were all smiles on the sidelines. Fast forward to one hour later and the Cardinals were trying to understand how they lost the final four singles matches to the 6-9 Huskies.
"We didn't think we would be in such a situation after being up 3-0," Morrison said. "We only needed one of those four matches. When it came down to it, we didn't get the point."
All four of Northern Illinois' points came in three-set matches.
Senior Jose Perdomo had a tiebreaker in the second set of No. 1 singles for the match and was unable to finish the deal. Perdomo went on to lose 4-6, 7-6, 6-1.
Freshman Andres Monroy lost in three sets at No. 4 singles 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. Monroy's older brother Alfonso plays for Northern Illinois but did not see action because of injury.
Sophomore Shaun Bussert lost in three sets as well 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
It all came down to sophomore Eduardo Pavia at No. 2 singles for the match. Pavia split the first sets and sustained a leg injury early in the third. After being looked at by the trainers, he got back into the action and forced a tiebreaker for the match. Pavia lost 8-6 and showed his frustration by launching a tennis ball over the fence and onto Bethel Avenue.
"As a team we just need to learn how to close our matches," Morrison said. "It's always disappointing to lose a match like this after being so far up."
The loss eliminated the Cardinals from winning the Mid-American Conference regular season title. To make matters worse, the loss prevented the Cardinals from clinching a first round bye in the MAC Tournament that begins on Thursday in Buffalo.
Ball State finished the regular season 11-11 on the year. Northern Illinois was the only team with a losing record to beat Ball State.
BSU 3, NIU 4DoublesNo. 1 Jose Perdomo/Zane Smith (BSU) def. Pawel Poziomski/Jimmy Chu (NIU) 8-4No. 2 Eduardo Pavia/Andres Monroy (BSU) lost to Jurica Grubisic/Shaun Stewart (NIU) 8-7 (5)No. 3 Jorge Rodriguez/Derek Carpenter (BSU) def. Javier Bernabe/Ross VanderPloeg (NIU) 8-3
SinglesNo. 1 Perdomo (BSU) lost to Poziomski (NIU) 4-6, 7-6, 6-1No. 2 Pavia (BSU) lost to Grubisic (NIU) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (6)No. 3 Cliff Morrison (BSU) def. Stewart (NIU) 6-1, 6-0No. 5 Rodriguez (BSU) def. Chu (NIU) 6-1, 6-1 No. 4 Monroy (BSU) lost to Bernabe (NIU) 2-6, 6-4, 7-5No. 6 Shaun Bussert (BSU) lost to VanderPloeg 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
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