The Ball State men’s tennis team came up short on Saturday falling to nationally ranked Michigan State 6-1 before bouncing back to sweep Anderson 7-0. With the split series, the Cardinals are now 7-5 on the season.
Ball State stormed into the weekend on a three-match win streak but the Spartans weren’t about to roll over on the road.
“It all just came down to toughness and they were the tougher team today,” coach Bill Richards said. “I really pride myself on having tough teams and this team wasn’t as tough as they needed to be today.”
The Spartans jumped out to the early lead, winning two of the three doubles matches. An untimely double fault from sophomore Ray Leonard doomed the No. 1 pair, as they fell in the decisive match 8-6
Ball State had their fair share of chances in singles play but weren’t able to take advantage.
“We had numerous opportunities in different situations, in doubles and at least one set in every singles match and several matches went down to the end,” Richards said.
As Richards said, several matches came down to the wire but the Cardinals couldn’t win the key points. Seniors Dalton Albertin and Alex Brym both lost in three sets.
“It all comes down to winning the close ones, in sports that’s what its all about, coming through in pressure situations and performing your best when the pressure is on. We failed miserably in that area today,” Richards said.
The lone bright spot for the Cardinals came at the No. 6 position where junior Austin Smith fought back to win in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 10-6.
Smith has now won his last five singles matches and nine out of his last ten.
The Cardinals took out their frustration by sweeping in-state rival Anderson in the second match of the double header
They got off to a hot start, winning all three doubles matches. The duo of Smith and senior Austin Sansone won 8-0 at the No. 3 spot.
The domination continued in singles action where the Cardinals dropped a total of nine games.
Sansone, Albertin and Elliot all won 6-0, 6-0 with Leonard dropping a team-high five games with his 6-1, 6-4 victory.
The Cardinals have more than two weeks off before their next match. They travel to Las Vegas over spring break to play three matches in three days.
