Ball State knew it would have its hands full with Northwestern, and the Wildcats lived up to that expectation.
The Big Ten opponent defeated Ball State 6-1 on Sunday in the Cardinals' first match of the spring season.
"It's just a starting point," coach Bill Richards said. "When you are playing a Big Ten opponent, the deck is kind of stacked against you."
Junior Cliff Morrison had a breakthrough match for the Cardinals with a 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (10-7) win in No. 3 singles over the Wildcats' Spencer Wolf. Morrison along with junior Andres Monroy won their doubles match 8-2.
"I have a tremendous respect for Cliff," Richards said. "He hasn't played in a match in eight months. That was a huge positive to see him play well."
Morrison was coming off a knee injury and played in his first match since April.
The Wildcats took the other two doubles matches giving them the first point in the match. Northwestern went on to take five of the six singles matches with three victories coming in straight sets.
Only Monroy and sophomore Alex Brym were able to win a set in their singles matches.
"I wasn't disappointed with anyone," Richards said. "We pushed them pretty hard. I try not to get down on bad performances and too excited about good ones. It's still early we just have to take it one step at a time"
Ball State will play its next 10 matches at home in the YMCA Tennis Center and should be favored in nine of them, the exception being against Michigan State, another Big Ten school.
Richards will try to get the least experienced players on the team involved during the home stand.
"This week we will try to play the players that didn't play Sunday," Richards said. "[We] still have some work to do in doubles. We were a little rusty in doubles."
Ball State will play a doubleheader Sunday against IPFW and Eastern Illinois.
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