With three freshmen and three sophomores on its roster, Ball State University women's tennis coach Kathy Bull has said she has things to be excited for in the future.
Lauren Pickrel showed her coach that she had something to be excited for right now.
Pickrel won two titles Saturday at Ball State Invitational, as she captured the singles title with a comeback win against Beth Ganser of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She then teamed up with Dena Boulieris and won Flight 4 doubles by defeating Butler University's Ashley Breitenback and Kahfii King 8-1 in the final.
Bull said she was pleased with her freshman.
"With injuries to some of our veterans [Sarah Hebble and Hayley Hall only played doubles], we needed our young players to step up," she said. "Lauren sure did that for us."
Hebble and Hall captured the other doubles title for the Cardinals by defeating Laina Grote and Molly Mathews of University of Dayton 8-3 in the final to give Ball State three titles on the weekend.
After describing Friday's performance as a "middle of the road" day, Bull said felt better about her on team on the second day of the tournament.
"[We] showed a vast improvement from last year at this tournament," she said. "Everyone on our team experienced some kind of success [Saturday], and I am very pleased with that."
Enduring the physical wearing of a two day tournament is not easy, Bull said. The coach said she once again stressed the importance of off-season conditioning to help keep her players in physical shape.
"These girls play eight matches in 48 hours. That's not an easy thing to do, and that's why summer conditioning is so crucial," Bull said. "Fitness is such a huge part of the game, and not only from a quickness standpoint, but also endurance. We plan on taking two days off to recover, and then we'll get back to working on what we need to accomplish."
The Cardinals don't play again until Oct. 2-4 when they play at Cincinnati.
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