With only a week until the start of Mid-American Conference play, the Ball State University men's tennis team will play three matches in the Boise State Invitational this weekend for a final tune-up.
"We don't know much about the teams we play, but we know they are all good," junior Eduardo Pavia said. "We need to come ready to play from the first point to the end of the match and just take care of business."
Ball State plays the University of Idaho first on today followed by another match based on results. Ball State is in the top half of the bracket and with four nationally-ranked teams.
"We are going into the matches looking to play the best we can and get some good wins," coach Bill Richards said. "There are four good nationally-ranked teams here. We watched Idaho play yesterday and they are a good team, but that is why we come here and play."
Fresh off a 6-1 win over in-state rival Butler University, Ball State comes into the invitational riding a one-match win streak.
Earlier in the year, the Cardinals got tired in some matches and made an effort to improve conditioning. Richards believes this problem has been corrected and isn't worried about it for these upcoming matches.
"We have played a lot of matches and once we got a few under our belt we made a commitment to conditioning so we are fine now from that standpoint," Richards said.
With an 11-5 record on the year, the Cardinals have a solid base of match play and preparation heading into the MAC tournament. To Pavia, it is all about coming out and performing on match day.
"The team looks good and everybody is playing well and playing with confidence," Pavia said. "We look good in practice, but we gotta go out there and get the job done and take a step forward tomorrow."
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