After a strong start, the Ball State University men's tennis team ended the weekend and started the season in disappointing fashion, coach Bill Richards said.
Ball State started the season with a win by sweeping IUPUI in both doubles and singles play on Saturday. On Sunday the Cardinals lost to DePaul University as they split singles play and only picked up one win in three matches of doubles play.
"For the tradition of this program, what our expectations are, this is obviously not acceptable for us," Richards said.
Ball State was not really tested by IUPUI, Richards said. He said that DePaul is a good team and outplayed Ball State but the Cardinals should have been able to win the match.
Richards said that there is no way that Ball State should lose the doubles point to DePaul at home.
The standout of the weekend for Ball State was senior Joe Epkey, Richards said. Joe Epkey won both of his singles matches and teamed up with his brother Jarrod Epkey in doubles and took both of their matches together.
"Personally I felt like I did a good job," Joe Epkey said. "But I'd rather lose and the team win rather than me win. So it's pretty disappointing."
Even though he went undefeated on the weekend, Joe Epkey still had struggles of his own, he said. In both of his singles matches, Joe Epkey started out strong. He won his first set on Saturday 6-0 and his first set on Sunday 6-1; however, he struggled in the second set both days before pulling out the victory.
"That first time, I let up a little bit the first match, which I just needed to stay a little more intense and finish as strong as I did in the first [set]," Joe Epkey said. "In my match [Sunday], the guy I played started playing better in the second set. I don't think I really let up a whole lot. I think conditioning might have been a factor."
As he expected, Richards experimented with the lineup this weekend. However, there was some consistency as Joe Epkey, Aaron Philips, Jarrod Epkey and Tetta Oyama played both matches as the top four singles players. In doubles, Joe and Jarrod Epkey played both matches as the top team while Philips and Jorge Rodriguez played both matches as the No. 2 team for the Cardinals.
The next contest for Ball State will be a match at Northwestern University on Friday. The Cardinals will enter the match with improvements to be made after this disappointing weekend, Richards said.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
