Confidence and team chemistry are on the rise three tournaments into the year for Ball State, and it's resulting in wins on the court.
Junior Derek Carpenter said the team is making progress at the right time. He said the team took more positives than negatives out of the weekend's Michigan State Fall Invitational.
"I think we really took a step forward as a team and came together. The first day we won seven out of eight matches and it's just great to see things changing," Carpenter said. "We're all about sophomores and juniors, and it's nice to see all of us growing up and coming into our own."
The biggest weakness for the Ball State lineup is its doubles play, and coach Bill Richards has spent this fall trying to find the right partners to put his team in the best position to win matches.
"We've been talking about making improvements in doubles and I think we did that [this weekend]," Richards said. "With these tournaments you really just have to go through each match and just break things down."
Since the beginning of the year, Richards has paired Carpenter and junior Andres Monroy together. Sophomore Dalton Albertin and junior Zane Smith have also partnered up.
So far the combination for No. 1 and 2 doubles has worked out. This weekend Dalton and Smith went 3-1 in their matches, while Monroy and Carpenter went 2-2.
Monroy said the more matches Carpenter and he play together, the more comfortable they are playing side by side.
"[Andres] and I played once together our freshman year and lost," he said. "Coach never really put us together again and then he did this year and now we've hit it off. We've become a solid doubles team right now."
The one part of their game Monroy said they need to improve on is bringing the same passion to each match, no matter the opponent.
"We are playing some good doubles right now, just sometimes we don't play as well when we need to," Monroy said. "We beat Michigan State, but then lost against Green Bay, so I would say we need to play more consistent."
The other doubles team, Albertin and Smith, has made its own progress on the court. They, too, are learning to mesh with each other.
"I think just practicing and playing together every day and switching sides is the right move for us," Smith said. "We're just playing better and seem to be more comfortable and we now know what each other are capable of."
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