It’s no secret that the Cardinals have struggled this season in doubles action. They have found themselves trailing after the first point eight times this year. Fortunately for Ball State, they have dug themselves out of the early hole and recorded victories three times this season.
With that being said, the team needs to find some consistency in doubles action before Mid-American Conference play.
Injuries have played a key role in deciding whom coach Bill Richards puts out on the court for doubles. He has used 12 different combinations of teams in the spring season with only one of those duos playing more than six times together.
Richards hasn’t been shy in switching up the lineup to try and find a suitable fix to the consistency problem.
“I just thought we were getting a little stale with a couple of our teams,” Richards said. “Thought we might switch it up a little bit and see if we could get a little more chemistry going.”
Richards has had a full squad to choose from for the past five matches. Nonetheless, the team has dropped 10 of the 15 doubles matches.
It’s essential that the Cardinals are clicking on all cylinders come MAC play. With only two matches left before that happens, it’s time to pick a rotation and stick with it. Chemistry is hard to acquire when the teams are switched up every other match.
With the lack of productivity in doubles, Richards has a hard decision to make over the next few weeks. Either he continues to test new scenarios in hopes of finding the perfect fit, or he picks a previous rotation and rides it out because the inconsistency is killing the Cardinals.
“Not sure where we’ll go from here with the doubles, but we have a lot of options,” Richards said.
