In its first outside home match, the Ball State women’s tennis team was able to defeat Northern Illinois 6-1 Friday.
Ball State took the early lead, winning the doubles point over its Mid-American Conference rival and taking the 1-0 lead. Senior Kristel Sanders would defeat Huskies’ Haley Dekkinga 6-1, 6-0 from the three seed. Sixth seeded Sophomore Ayaka Terashi would pick up the next point for the Cardinals when she defeated NIU’s Stephanie McDonald 6-2, 6-2.
The clinching point would then be picked up by Ball State’s two seed, Sophomore Courtney Earnest, when she defeated Cristina Alvarez 6-3, 6-3. Sophomore Bethany Moore would also pick up a hard-fought win for Ball State, beating Arantza De La Torre 7-6 (7-5 tiebreak), 6-1.
Northern Illinois would pick up its only point of the match when their number one seed Nelle Youel defeated Ball State’s junior, Courtney Wild 3-6, 3-6. Ball State won the final match, as Junior Ashlyn Rang picked up a victory over Mary Malkin, 6-2, 4-6, and 10-5 in a third set tiebreak.
Ball State begins their MAC competition with a win and advances to 11-6 on the season. After the match, coach Max Norris stressed the importance of his team’s win.
“I let them know that they need to try to always start with and end with a win,” he said. “I don’t want us to walk away with a bad taste from ending the win with the loss, and the girls did everything they needed to avoid it.”
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