Ball State women’s tennis (2-2) hosted the James Madison Dukes (3-1) on Feb. 3 and lost a tough match 4-3.
Ball State men’s tennis (2-2) fell just short of putting together an impressive road win against Michigan State (3-3), losing 4-3 on Feb. 3.
Ball State Men’s Tennis (2-1) traveled south to face in-state rival Indiana (4-1) in Bloomington on Sunday, suffering a tough 5-2 defeat. Throughout all of the respective matches, they had opportunities to win, but couldn’t find a way to turn the momentum.
Ball State (2-1) was ready to go from the first serve in its victory over Louisville Jan. 28. Ball State dominated the doubles matches. Third-year Masha Polishchuk and fourth-year Jessica Braun got singles action started, winning each of their singles matches 6-3, 6-1. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead. But if they wanted to win, they were going to have to earn it.
It came down to the wire, but the Ball State Men’s tennis team is 2-0 on the young season after defeating the Illinois State Redbirds (3-1) 4-3 on Friday.
Sunday was only the second-ever meeting between the Ball State women’s tennis team (1-1) and Purdue (3-0) and the Cardinals dropped the tightly-contested match 4-3.
There were no first-match jitters for the Ball State women’s tennis team today. Ball State (1-0) took on the IUPUI Jaguars (0-1) in the season opener at the Muncie Northwest YMCA, where Ball State didn’t drop a single match or set. It was a match where the Cardinals had a more talented team, but that doesn’t mean there aren't important takeaways for the team going forward.
“I felt that we were prepared and ready to go,” said Ball State Men’s Tennis head coach Bill Richards after the Ball State Men’s tennis team dominated its home match versus the Eastern Illinois Panthers on Friday to open the 2023 spring season. After a couple of weeks off around Christmas, the Cardinals had packed a lot into the past couple of weeks to prepare for their first match, and being ready to compete was a huge emphasis in practice.
If you ask anyone that plays football, most of them will tell you that injuries are an accepted consequence of playing the sport. And not just injuries like a rolled ankle. It’s injuries like a torn achilles, torn ACL or even concussions, all serious injuries, that players know are possible, and are willing to risk at the expense of pursuing their dreams. It’s accepted as the nature of the game, and it’s understood amongst the brotherhood of the NFL that these serious injuries could set them back. Some of the worst extremes of these accepted injuries amongst players have reared their ugly heads in Cincinnati, just as they did on Monday Night Football.
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