Once the sun replaced the rain clouds at the Ball State Fall Invitational, the Cardinals ended up with a decent weekend against a 14-team field.
Sophomore Cliff Morrison and freshman Alex Doherty had deep runs in their singles tournaments. Junior Eduardo Pavia and freshman Dalton Albertin advanced to the doubles championship match.
"Those guys did well," coach Bill Richards said. "We beat the players we were supposed to beat, but didn't beat the players we wanted to beat."
Morrison, who won the singles championship at the Milwaukee Classic a week ago, followed it up by winning three singles matches in Flight A. Morrison struggled in his semifinal match with an injury.
Doherty played in his second collegiate tournament and his first in Muncie with four singles victories in Flight C.
"I wasn't surprised," Richards said on Doherty's performance. "We are looking for guys to separate themselves in the fall and Alex took a big step in that direction."
After defeating Niko Bouleris and Jose Crowley of Marquette University in the semifinals, Pavia and Albertin fell to Ben Hartman and Jozwiak Bartosz of DePaul University in the Flight A doubles championship. Sophomores Andres Monroy and Zane Smith were beat by Hartman and Bartosz in the quarterfinals.
In singles action, 10 of 11 Cardinals won a match this weekend. Sophomore Dave Thomas was the only exception, as he was battling a wrist injury. Ball State struggled in the second round as Morrison, Doherty and sophomore Derek Carpenter were the only Cardinals to win multiple matches.
The first day of action was filled with rain delays and the tournament was moved to the YMCA tennis center. Good weather on Saturday and Sunday allowed the tournament to finish outdoors.
"The weather was the same for everybody," Richards said. "We had a good attitude and were patient about it and that's what we had to do this week."
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