Ball State
Bulls Lose at Ball State, 6-1
4/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
MUNCIE, IN - The UB men's tennis team wrapped up the 2014 dual season Sunday afternoon, losing 6-1 at Ball State. The team finishes with an 11-7 overall record and a 1-3 Mid-American Conference record. Despite finishing with the same record as Western Michigan, the Bulls earned the final seed in the four-team MAC tournament by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Bulls started strong with an 8-2 win at third doubles by Damien David and Pablo Alvarez to start the day, but wins at second (8-5) and first (8-6) flights would give the Cardinals an early 1-0 lead. The momentum continued to swing in Ball State's favor, as it took the first set at all six singles matches.
David and Sebastian Ionescu would battle back to win the second sets at first and second singles, respectively, but the match was already decided before they could finish. David would continue a personal hot streak by winning 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-3) in his match, while Ionescu would retire in his third set.
"We certainly didn't play our best this weekend and we have a ways to go to get back to our true level," head coach Lee Nickell said. "We plan on taking this week to work hard and we believe that a MAC championship is still within our grasp. We feel fortunate to be in the tournament and we plan on taking the opportunity to play our best tennis."
The team will make the trek back out to Muncie for the conference tournament, which begins next Friday. As the fourth seed, UB will take on regular season champion Northern Illinois, who beat the Bulls 5-2 on Friday in DeKalb. That match will be held at 10 am Friday, with the winner facing either second-seeded Toledo or the third seed Ball State Saturday for a 1 pm title match.
Ball State 6, Buffalo 1
Doubles
1. Ray Leonard/Austin Smith (BSU) def. Jonathan Hannestad/Sergio Arevalillo (BUFFALO) 8-6
2. Patrick Elliott/Andrew Stutz (BSU) def. Sebastian Ionescu/Akhil Mehta (BUFFALO) 8-5
3. Damien David/Pablo Alvarez (BUFFALO) def. Matt Helm/Lucas Andersen (BSU) 8-2
Order of Finish: 3,2,1
Singles
1. Damien David (BUFFALO) def. Ray Leonard (BSU) 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-3)
2. Patrick Elliott (BSU) def. Sebastian Ionescu (BUFFALO) 6-4, 4-6, 4-0, retired
3. Lucas Andersen (BSU) def. Pablo Alvarez (BUFFALO) 7-5, 6-2
4. Austin Smith (BSU) def. Sergio Arevalillo (BUFFALO) 6-2, 7-5
5. Patrick Downs (BSU) def. Jonathan Hannestad (BUFFALO) 6-3, 7-6 (1-0)
6. Andrew Stutz (BSU) def. Akhil Mehta (BUFFALO) 6-3, 6-3
Order of Finish: 6,3,4,5,2,1
