Looking to rebound after a conference-opening loss to Northern Illinois, Ball State men’s tennis (12-5, 2-1 MAC) took on Toledo (3-11, 0-2 MAC) in the first home conference meet of the season. A sweep in the doubles slate and domination in the singles slate gave the Cardinals a 5-2 win over the Rockets.
“Every conference match is incredibly important, and there really isn’t a lot of margin for error,” head coach Bill Richards said. “We focused on rebounding back from our matchup last week against Northern [Illinois] and get a win. We want to keep ourselves in contention for a conference championship.”
The Cardinals opened up the match winning all three of the doubles matchups to clinch the doubles point. The biggest win came from the duo of freshman Chris Adams and junior Tom Carney who won, 6-1.
“With the format we have in doubles and only playing one set, you just got to come out and be aggressive and have a lot of emotion,” Richards said. “We did a really good job of that today in showing up.”
Going into the singles slate, the Cardinals went up early with singles wins from freshmen Thibault De Negri, Bryce Bonin and Adams. The Rockets had a singles win over junior Conner Andersen, 6-1, to claim the first point of the match. Junior Marko Guzina gained the Cardinals four-point lead back with a 7-5 win.
“I have to make sure I keep my part and do as much as I can,” Guzina said. “I was very fortunate. Winning a tight match is a big conference booster, so hopefully I am able to do that next week as well.”
Toledo would take the final singles match, but it would be too little, too late as the Cardinals gained their first conference win of the season, 5-2. Ball State will head back to Northern Illinois next weekend looking for redemption.
“We lost to them last weekend, 5-2, and it was a disappointing loss, but they are a good team,” Richards said. “We need to focus on each individual, work on things that need to be sharpened up, have a good week of practice and be ready to go.”
Contact Jack Williams with comments at jgwilliams@bsu.edu or on Twitter at @JackWilliamsBSU.
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