Over the past few days, the Ball State men's tennis team has been busy receiving honors from the Mid-American Conference front office.
On Tuesday, the Cardinals were named the preseason favorite in the MAC after winning the MAC Tournament last season.
On Wednesday, freshman Ray Leonard was named the MAC Men's Tennis Player of the Week after going undefeated in his singles and doubles matches with Valparaiso and IUPUI.
Despite all of the accolades, Ball State coach Bill Richards said it doesn't mean anything when match day comes.
"As far it how it affects the team, I think our players would take it as a compliment," he said. "To a degree, it's a bode of confidence and your performance level. But we've already talked about it. Our players completely understand that it's nothing but on paper."
What's not on paper, however, is how well Ball State will play against its Saturday opponent-Xavier.
While the Cardinals defeated the Musketeers 5-2 last season at home, they were also a much deeper team with a lot better health.
This year, with senior Cliff Morrison out for the year; junior Alex Doherty transferring to Georgia Southern; senior Andres Monroy dealing with a hip injury; and nagging injuries suffered by junior Alex Brym and senior Zane Smith, the Cardinals have some holes to fill.
Richards, however, isn't worried about the team's health against Xavier.
"I think we're good," he said. "We've got some guys that are nicked up a little bit, but it's just like everyone is. You get back from quite a long break and jump right in real quick. Some of the guys are overworked a little bit right now. But for the most part, we don't have anyone of our starting eight players that can't play because of any injury."
For the season, No. 1 singles Dalton Albertin has a 1-3 record. One of those losses came last week in a tough three-set match with IUPUI's Nick Volz.
"Dalton would be the first to admit he's got to step up his game a little bit and try to get back to a level where he played all of last year," Richards said. "He's just a little bit below that right now."
Looking forward to Xavier, Albertin said his goal is to make more first serves and not many unforced errors.
"I'm not really going to change that much from the IUPUI and Valpo matches," he said. "I'm just going to try and go out there, play my game and hope I play better."
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