The men's tennis team (13-6) beat Wright State 7-0 Saturday afternoon.
The match was scheduled for the outdoor tennis courts but was moved to the Muncie YMCA Indoor Tennis Center due to low temperature.
Head coach Bill Richards said he wanted his team to have a competitive weekend before the upcoming matches, which include undefeated Mid-American Conference leader Western Michigan.
"I just think playing a match helps you stay focused and helped us prepare for the real important week coming up," he said. "I think that was one main thing, just to use this match to prepare us for Notre Dame and Western Michigan."
Richards also said there was another reason for the importance of Saturday's match against Wright State.
"From an individual standpoint, (I wanted to) give all eight guys an opportunity to play and give them a chance to work on some things in their game as well."
Richards said his team was able to accomplish these goals by avoiding idle time and getting eight players involved in the match in singles and doubles.
The win against the Raiders preserved Ball State's undefeated record against unranked teams. Ball State has won five of its last seven matches, and each of the wins came over unranked teams. The two losses were against Indiana State and Louisville. The Cardinals were outscored 13-1 in the two defeats.
Richards said it was difficult to evaluate the play of his team because of the level of the opponent, but he was pleased with the victory.
"There was not any real challenge, or we really weren't pushed that hard," he said. "For the most part, all year long in those types of matches our guys have done a pretty good job in terms of their frame of mind."
Ball State won all of the doubles matches 8-4. In singles action, No. 1 Chris Varga won 6-1, 6-1; No. 2 Matt Baccarani won 6-3, 6-4; No. 3 Matt Laramore won 6-1, 6-0; No. 4 Patrick Thompson won 6-1, 6-2; No. 5 Klint Knable won 6-2, 6-2; No. 6 Brad Rhodes 6-0, 6-0.
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