The Ball State men’s tennis team dropped a 5-2 decision to Brown Friday afternoon at the YMCA Tennis Center. The loss leaves the Cardinals with a 3-4 record.
Coach Bill Richards was happy with his team’s play in spite of the fact that the Cardinals were shorthanded.
“We as a team talked about trying to overcome the loss of two of our top players, Ray Leonard and Cliff Morrison,” Richards said. “I thought we played to win, I didn’t think we lost our thought of winning just because we had two of our top guys out against a very good team.”
Ball State hung tough with Brown even though the team only had six healthy players.
“I thought it was a great effort when you consider we had those two guys out,” Richards said. “Everybody needed to step up and for the most part everyone did.”
In doubles play, Ball State came close to getting a much-needed point but were unable to take advantage of several match points.
At No. 1 doubles, Brown’s Mike Hill and Michael Reichmann defeated Dalton Albertin and Patrick Elliot 9-8 in the match that earned Brown the point. Ball State’s tandem of Alexandre Brym and Imanol Arconada defeated Brown’s Soufiane Azargul and Brandon Burke 9-8 at the No. 2 doubles spot.
In singles play, the Cardinals jumped out to an early lead in several matches but were unable to keep up the momentum.
At the No. 3 position, Arconada led Azargul 5-2 before dropping the first set 7-5.
Arconada fell behind early in the second set, but fought off several match points before losing 6-4. Brym also jumped out to an early lead at the No. 2 spot but lost in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
In the marquee matchup of the day, Albertin defeated Riechmann 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, (10-8) at the No.1 position.
Riechmann broke Albertin on the first game of the match but Albetin kept his cool and broke back in the 8th game to even things back up. Albertin then held serve till the tiebreak where he took the first set. Riechman controlled the second set, easily winning 6-3.
Because Brown already having won the match, the two played a tiebreaker instead of a third set. Albertin jumped out to a 7-4 lead before Riechman rattled off four straight points to take an 8-7 lead. Albertin didn’t let it faze him though, and won the next three to take the match.
