The Ball State men's tennis team fell to 2-1 on the young season with a 6-1 loss at second-ranked Illinois Sunday. Though the Cardinals knew the Illini would be hard to beat, head coach Bill Richards said he was disappointed in his team's effort.
"We knew it was going to be tough going in," Richards said. "We just didn't push them as hard as we had hoped to."
Freshman Patrick Thompson had the lone Cardinal victory. He beat Illinois' Evan Zeder in the sixth singles sport 6-3, 6-2.
"Patrick Thompson played a great match for us," Richards said. "He was up early, stayed on top and was never really threatened."
Ball State actually had an opportunity to take two doubles matches, but lost leads late in the matches.
Freshman Matt Baccarani and senior Kevin Burnett had a 3-1 lead in their match before losing. Senior Chris Varga and sophomore Klint Knable were up 5-3 before falling to the Illini.
"It's not the loss (that bothers me)," Richards said, "it's just some matches guys didn't hang in there. They got discouraged when they got down and didn't stay tough."
In the rest of the singles matches, Chris Varga, Matt Baccarani, Matt Laramore and Klint Knable all fell in straight sets. The Fighting Illini also swept the three doubles matches.
Though Richards said the loss was tough to take, he said facing the high level of competition will only make the Cardinals better.
"We just need to keep perspective," Richards said. "It's early in the year. We try not to get too excited about the good things that happen early in the yet and not get too discouraged about the bad things that happen early in the year."
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