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MEN'S TENNIS: Ball State struggles in Regional Championships

Cardinals fail to make improvements before last fall tournament

After a two-and-a-half week absence from tournament play, the Ball State men's tennis team returned to competition this weekend in the USTA/ITA Ohio Valley Regional Championships in Knoxville, Tenn.

The goals for Ball State were to continue its improvement and play well against good competition.

By the end of its tournament play Saturday, Ball State did not finish with its desired results. 

Coach Bill Richards said despite the mixed results, Ball State played well overall.

 "We had a lot of tough draws," he said. "I thought even though we didn't win as many matches as we would've liked to have won, our level of play was good and the people we lost to were quality opponents."

On the opening day of the Regional Championships Thursday, Ball State struggled to get results in singles action, going 3-6 overall.

Leading the way for the Cardinals was junior Alex Brym and his doubles partner, sophomore Austin Smith. Brym defeated Texas Tech in his opening round match while Smith defeated Xavier. Both Brym and Smith lost their next match on Friday to Indiana and Middle Tennessee State, respectively.

On the doubles side Thursday, Ball State had a respectable 4-2 record. The twosome of senior Derek Carpenter and junior Zane Smith won both of their matches on the day against Tennessee and Wright State. The other two victories came from the tandem of junior Dalton Albertin and freshman Ray Leonard. They won both of their matches over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Wright State.

"Me and Ray have been playing some good doubles this year," Albertin said. "We've beaten some good teams. We beat Northwestern earlier in the year. We won two matches here. We're playing pretty well together."

During the second day of Regionals on Friday, Ball State rebounded from its early struggles in singles play with a 5-4 record. Leading the way for the Cardinals was Albertin, Carpenter and Zane Smith. Each individual won its Round of 64 match up in the consolation draw in straight sets. Leonard and junior Alex Doherty also won their respective match ups in the Round of 64 in three sets.

Ball State's final day of play Saturday saw them go 0-5 in singles play and 0-2 in doubles. Each singles loss was due to a walkover, meaning Ball State lost due to a failure to start each match.

"Those backdraw matches are pretty much optional," Richards said. "Once everyone was eliminated from the main draw, we came home because we began on Wednesday and we've got a lot of tests to make up this week. It's been a real rough stretch and we needed to get back home."

As for doubles, the twosome of Carpenter and Z. Smith  as well as and Albertin and Leonard lost their respective match ups to No. 5 seed Louisville and No. 3 seed Indiana 8-4 and 8-3.

Albertin said the match with Indiana was pretty close despite the score.

 "We had a lot of chances that could've made the match pretty interesting," he said. "We didn't win enough big points. I would say I definitely feel on any given day that if me and Ray played well, we could beat them."

Richards said not only were the doubles matches closer than the score indicated, but Ball State's play was solid.

 "We had a lot of games where we had chances to win," he said. "We had to earn everything we got. But overall, I thought our level of play was good even though the scores weren't as close as you'd like."

Ball State will wrap up its fall schedule beginning Oct. 28 when it travels to Tuscaloosa, Ala. to compete in the Alabama Fall Invitational. First serve is to be announced.


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