WOMEN'S TENNIS: Ball State senior, two assistant coaches leave team

Injuries force Hall to withdraw from final collegiate season

Issues within the Ball State women's tennis team forced senior Hayley Hall and two assistant coaches to leave the team.

Hall and the coaches, Megan Fudge and volunteer assistant Ryler DeHeart, withdrew from the team for separate reasons.

Hall said a combination of complications with a back injury as well as disagreements with coach Christine Bader over the injuries were too much for her.

"[Bader] and I just didn't see eye to eye on my medical stuff," Hall said. "I've had back problems for years, and it was at the point that I don't know if we were on the same page with that."

Bader is the third coach in Hall's collegiate career. She was hired over the summer as the women's tennis coach and has presided over the Cardinals during the 2010 fall season and the first month of the spring season.

Hall said former coach Kathy Bull, who was fired in Oct. 2009 for reported NCAA violations, and former interim coach Amy Behrman understood how to cooperate with Hall on her injuries better than Bader did.

"Kathy and Amy were both aware and understood," she said. "Kathy was with me when I had back surgery in my sophomore year. I think it was hard for Christine to come in and I think [the injury] was frustrating for both of us.

"I've never had trouble in the past like this with coaches not understanding where I'm coming from with my back issues."

Hall entered her final season with Ball State this spring and played her last game Feb. 6 against Chicago. Since then, she missed Ball State's last three matches.

"I love tennis and I loved playing, and it was really hard for me to make this decision," she said. "I don't know how well I would have been able to do anyway this season just because of the different page I was on with the coach about the injury."

Bader did not return several calls from the Daily News Sunday.

Hall said both Fudge and DeHeart left the team for personal reasons that were unrelated to her issues with Bader.

Ball State is 3-4 in the spring season and now has seven players on its roster.

Even though Hall had one spring season remaining, she said it would be hard to complete her time at Ball State without playing for the women's tennis team.

"I feel how disappointing it is that I worked so hard to play and [I won't] be able to finish out the season," she said. 


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