Ball State men’s tennis (13-9) traveled to South Bend to face No. 28 Notre Dame Sunday. The Cardinals failed to win a match as the Fighting Irish won 7-0. Ball State struggled against Notre Dame's high level of play indoors.
“Some guys played better than others as it’s the case for every match no matter who you play,” Richards said. “We really hadn’t seen a team this year at the level of Notre Dame and it showed. I think if we had been able to play outdoors, it would have been a little bit closer.”
In doubles action, the Fighting Irish won the doubles point at the first and third positions. Junior Nemanja Guzina and redshirt junior Collin Rigney lost to Richard Ciamarra and Brendon Kempin, 6-2. Freshman Chris Adams and junior Tom Carney also lost to Drew Dawson and Nathan Griffin, 6-2.
The Fighting Irish won all singles matches, but the Cardinals kept two of those matches interesting. After losing his doubles match, Nemanja Guzina kept his No. 1 singles match close, but ultimately lost, dropping the first set (6-2) and the second (6-4).
Ball State's Marko Guzina also kept his singles match interesting against Notre Dame's Guillermo Cabrera. Marko managed to lose the first set by three points (6-3) and the second set by two points (6-4). Out of all of the singles matches, these two matches were the closest.
“Marko and Nemanja obviously played the best of anyone today,” Richards said. “A little bit more competitive than in some of the other matches, that’s for sure.”
The Cardinals return home this weekend for the final two matches against Mid-American Conference opponents and currently sit in fourth place in the MAC standings. Richards said this will be an important weekend.
“We need to win one of those two matches to make the tournament,” Richards said. “We know it’s a really important weekend. We need to be ready to go, that’s for sure.”
The first MAC match starts at 1 p.m. Saturday against Binghamton at Cardinal Creek Tennis Center, weather permitting.
Contact Patrick Murphy with comments at prmurphy2@bsu.edu or on Twitter @PMURPH505.
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