After Saturday afternoon Coach Bill Richards will have a better understanding of where the Ball State men's tennis team stands against equal opponents.
Xavier will come to Ball State Saturday at 1 p.m. in one the few swing matches of the season.
"They are pretty familiar with us and we are pretty familiar with them," Richards said. "We saw quite a bit of them this fall individually at the Ball State Invitational and the Michigan State Invitational."
Xavier is 0-2 on the season but its losses came at the hands of No. 12 Kentucky and No. 4 Ohio State. Ball State is 2-1 but its wins were against the likes of IPFW and Eastern Illinois. Ball State lost its season opener to No. 59 Northwestern.
"I don't think it's going to have any bearing on the match," Richards said. "We played a good Northwestern team on the road."
Xavier is the defending Atlantic 10 Conference Champion and will be Ball State's first test at home.
"They're good," Richards said of Xavier. "They're an NCAA [tournament] team and have conference championships."
Although Xavier is located in nearby Cincinnati this is first time the two schools have played in the dual-match season in awhile.
"We agreed to a home and away series for the next few years," Richards said. "Scheduling is very difficult, there are all kinds of teams playing locally and you can't play all of them."
Ball State was voted to finish third in the Mid-American Conference this year by the coaches. Western Michigan and Buffalo were voted to finish ahead of Ball State.
"I don't think about them or worry about them," Richards said of the coach's poll. " It's just good publicity."
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