Ball State women’s tennis (19-3, 8-1 MAC) honored its seven seniors April 22 in its final home match of the 2022-23 season. Jessica Braun, Isabelle Behrman, Emily Desai, Amy Kaplan, Emma Peeler, Allison Mulville and Livia Lukacs were all recognized before the match for their efforts over the last four and five years.
“I didn’t really play a ton in high school, I was still growing. Struggled with commands so I didn’t get too many playing opportunities, but that’s sort of when I first fell in love with baseball,” Jacobson said.
After winning last year’s Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament, the No. 10 team in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, Ball State Men’s Volleyball has a chance to repeat after their sweep of Lewis in the semifinal round Wednesday.
“Golf is a really hard game. The swing comes and goes. There are good days and there are bad days. But what you ultimately build your game on is how consistent you are with your process."
Ball State Baseball (23-12, 10-5 MAC) fell to Purdue (17-18, 7-5 B1GTEN) 3-2 in West Lafayette to lose its sixth straight contest. The Cardinals return to action April 21 at 3 p.m. as they take on Northern Illinois (7-26, 4-10 MAC) in the first of three games in Muncie.
“I didn’t get a ton of minutes, just in the fall and regular season so this spring has been a really big time for me to get confidence, just get those minutes in and get to make those plays,” Locante said.
Having to dig out of a hole has been a common thread for Ball State (13-9, 5-5 MAC) in 2023. Whether it was within respective matches, or trying to recover from a 2-5 start in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play, they’ve been battling from behind for most of this season. After their 4-3 win Sunday over the Buffalo Bulls (9-8, 5-5 MAC), they’ve fought all the way back to claim a spot in the upcoming MAC tournament.
Women’s Golf traveled to Carmel, Indiana, to play in the Lady Jaguar Invitational playing 36 holes at Plum Creek Golf Club this past weekend. Ball State's five-person roster consisted of junior Kiah Parrott, first-year Jasmine Driscoll, first-year Sarah Gallagher, first-year Madelin Boyd and second-year Payton Bennett.
Ball State Women’s Tennis (18-3, 7-1 MAC) continued its dominant ways Sunday by sweeping the Northern Illinois Huskies (12-14, 2-6 MAC) for the second time this year. The scoreboard says that the Cardinals had no issues but assistant coach Rifanty Kahfiani explained that this was a much tougher one to get than the last time these teams matched up on March 31.
Ball State (21-21, 11-9 MAC) opened its weekend home series with a doubleheader. In game one, the Cardinals used solid offense and good pitching to capture a 4-1 victory.
After coming off of a tournament that ended Wednesday, Ball State Men’s Golf was back in action with a quick turnaround for the Boilermaker Invitational.
The energy inside Worthen Arena was constant throughout Saturday’s quarterfinal sweep (25-20, 25-19, 25-15) for the No. 10 Cardinals (19-8, 11-3 MIVA) in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament against the No. 8 seed Quincy.
Coming into the 1987-88 season, Muncie Central had seven state championships to their name, but they hadn’t had any since 1979 when they took down conference rival Anderson in the state championship game. The Bearcats made it all the way to Market Square Arena and won their eighth state championship in school history. Thirty-five years after the team in purple raised the state championship trophy, players and fans look back on that team.
In order for a collegiate tennis match to take place outdoors, the temperature must be 50 degrees or higher, and sustained winds must be less than 20 miles per hour. Because of this, Ball State Men’s and Women’s tennis have been indoors for its home matches this season... both teams got to share the sunshine Friday as they each had 1 p.m matches at the Cardinal Creek Tennis Center in the team’s first home outdoor matches of the year.
“It’s a little bit of a taste of what it’s kind of like to be a division one football player,” Junior Jacob Valentine said. “Growing up, that was kind of a dream of mine, so to be able to do that here at the college that I go to is really exciting.”
In a mid-week road series against Western Michigan, Ball State softball fell 2-1, the Cardinals have now lost three Mid-American Conference (MAC) series in a row. In the series opener, Ball State was run-ruled 10-2 and the Cardinals rounded out the series by splitting Wednesday’s doubleheader.
“The course was playing a little bit more challenging this year than in years past,” [head coach Mike] Fleck said. “I think the greens were a little firmer and faster, the rough was definitely thick, and they had some rain in the week and let the rough grow out.”
“What I didn’t know at the time in 2007 is that it would take 10 years of outreach to people to finally see it implemented in 2017,” Elam said. “The whole time I felt like I was one day away from a major breakthrough.”
“I did have big expectations for myself. I expected myself to do the same thing that I did and then better. I had to kind of change those expectations because they were just too much to put on anybody, especially yourself,” Russo said.
Ball State Baseball (23-9, 10-2 MAC) fell to Indiana (23-10, 7-2 B1GTEN) in an in-state non-conference matchup 16-13. The Cardinals return to action April 14 at 3 p.m., as they begin their weekend series against Central Michigan (17-13, 7-5 MAC) in Mount Pleasant, Mich.
