After losing a pair of matches this past weekend to give the Ball State University women's tennis team its first winless Mid-American Conference season since 1989, coach Kathy Bull sent a text message.
The message told her team the 2009 regular season is done. Ball State's record is 0-0. Its first match of the new season is noon on Thursday against Northern Illinois University. The Cardinals are lucky to get a chance to avenge their first MAC loss of the 2009 season.
"I said I also scheduled a second match on Friday, which is going to be against the No. 1 seed, which is going to be Miami [University]," Bull said.
Bull's pre-MAC Tournament message to her team was prompted by her team's worst season since her first as the Ball State coach, when the Cardinals finished 0-6 in MAC play during the 1988-89 season.
The finishing touches to the most recent winless season came this past weekend when Ball State was swept by Bowling Green State University on Friday and Western Michigan University on Saturday, marking the second and third times the Cardinals were swept in MAC play this season.
"Now, emotionally, their confidence is just beat up," Bull said.
With having such a young team - comprised of a senior who previously had seen limited action, two sophomores and six freshmen - Bull said she thought it was important to let the team know it is no longer the inexperienced squad that began the year.
"We're just trying to put a little bit of a different twist and a positive spin on something new for a week or so," she said.
The message had a positive effect, as freshman Sarah Hebble said it already helped to take some of the pressure off the Cardinals as they prepare for the MAC Tournament.
"I thought it was kind of a cool way to look at it," Hebble said. "It helps take pressure off of us, and it helps us realize that we have pretty much gone through our whole season so we know what it's like so we shouldn't be as nervous."
While Bull said her team is emotionally beat up, Hebble said the Cardinals take some comfort in knowing they played close with their opening-round opponent when they met earlier in the season.
Ball State lost to Northern Illinois 4-3 in the conference opener on March 20. It was the first of three one-point losses the Cardinals had this year in MAC play.
Prior to the loss to the Huskies, the Cardinals were 5-5 on the season and on a two-match winning streak. Since then, they have lost eight straight and became the second team in program history to finish the season without a win in conference play.
Like the rest of the MAC season, Ball State failed to win one of the top three singles matches against Northern Illinois. All of the Cardinals' wins this year came from Hayley Hall (three wins), Hanna Oman (four wins) and Georgina Thomson (four wins) in the bottom three singles positions.
The Cardinals also lost the doubles point to the Huskies, another trend that continued through the entire conference season.
"You can probably make it through without the top three, but you've got to have one or the other," Bull said. "Doubles to me is bigger than not getting the first three."
For Ball State to turn around its fortunes in the MAC Tournament, it will need to find a way to pick up another point, such as the doubles point. Playing Northern Illinois, Hebble said, it is possible for Ball State to advance to play Miami in the second round of the single-elimination tournament.
"We had a close match with them so we know that we can beat them," Hebble said.
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