Ball State (17-4, 8-2 MAC) defeated Eastern Michigan (15-16, 3-7 MAC) 4-3 to win the Mid-American Conference (MAC) regular season championship April 24. The Cardinals have now won four of the last six MAC regular season championships.
After Ball State's junior Amy Kaplan and senior Hannah Davies defeated Eastern Michigan's freshman Sabina Brichackova and freshman Prerna Vichare on the first doubles court 6-3, the Eagles would go on to win the next two courts and earn the doubles point. Junior Emily Desai and sophomore Isabelle Behrman fell to redshirt senior Grace Whitney and redshirt senior Luisa Pelayo 6-4 on court two while senior Livia Lukacs and freshman Ella Hazelbaker were defeated by redshirt sophomore Isabelle Popma and redshirt senior Vasavi Ganesan 6-4 on court three.
In the singles rounds, Lukacs took the first point for the Cardinals, defeating Popma 6-1 and 6-0 before Ganesan defeated Hazelbaker 6-4 and 6-2 to keep the Eagles ahead. Behrman then defeated redshirt junior Julia Piatek 6-2 and 6-1 to tie the match 2-2.
Davies defeated Pelayo 6-4 and 6-3 while Desai fell to redshirt sophomore Emma-Lou Pommiers to leave the match, and the regular season championship, resting on the court two bout between Kaplan and Birchackova.
After losing in the doubles match, Kaplan won her singles match 4-6, 6-0 and 7(5) - 6 (5) to give Ball State the regular season championship.
The Cardinals will host the MAC tournament April 30-May 1 and hold the No. 1 seed.
Contact Daniel Kehn with comments at daniel.kehn@bsu.edu or on Twitter @daniel_kehn.
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