Friday the men's tennis team lost to No. 43 Northwestern 6-1. The match ends a month spent primarily playing ranked teams.
Ball State played five ranked teams during the month of February, beating Michigan State and Purdue.
The Northwestern loss marked the fourth match in seven days for the Cardinals and drops their record to 7-4.
The Cardinals started the match by winning the doubles point. The team of freshman Matt Baccarani, who won Mid-American Conference player of the week, and senior Kevin Burnett defeated Northwestern's No.10 ranked team 9-7. Senior Chris Varga and freshman Patrick Thompson accounted for the second doubles victory.
"It was definitely a very high level of tennis," head coach Bill Richards said. "All three matches were very close, and I thought very well played on both sides. We just managed to win a few key points."
During the doubles matches, Burnett pulled his hamstring and sophomore Klint Knable hurt his arm. The injuries forced the two out of singles action.
"When you are playing tired I think you are more prone to injury, and I think that certainly could be a factor with (Burnett's) injury," Richards said.
Richards said the injuries to his players had a factor in the outcome, but he said he did not want to use injury as an excuse for losing.
"I give (Northwestern) all the credit," he said. "I'm not making any excuses at all. I thought they were probably the second best team we've played this year."
Richards said the number of matches in such a short amount of time played a role in his team's performance against the Wildcats.
"I think the number of matches we played in a short period of time took its toll when we got to that fourth match," he said. "On a different day I think we would have been able to do better, but they're a better team, and I would be the first one to give them the credit."
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