Ball State women's tennis started off its defense of the Mid-American Conference title with a 6-1 win over Western Michigan Friday.

The match itself, however, didn't start out so well.

Head coach Max Norris has emphasized the importance of getting their doubles play throughout the season and today, it did not pan out the way they would have hoped. 

The first match to finish was on court 3, where sophomore Isabelle Dohanics and senior Toni Ormond couldn’t stop the Broncos pairing of Barbare Eristavi and Katja Fevralev from beating them 6-2.

The next match finishing showed promise with a win on court 2 for sophomore Audrey Berger and junior Julia Sbircea. They beat Western Michigan's Denise Azcui and Olivia Myers 6-4.

Sophomore Peyton Gollhofer and senior Carmen Blanco were unable to bring it home and lost to Melina Lyubomirova and Tracy Kuhle 6-4, which gave the Broncos a 1-0 lead going in to the singles matches.

But that’s where Ball State managed to turn it around and showed why they could boast a 12-2 non-conference record.

On court 6, senior Rosa Calderon was the only player to win in straight sets. She triumphed 6-3 6-4 over Azcui. The other players all won in three sets.

On court 3, sophomore Isabelle Dohanics won her first set against Fevralev but dropped the second. In the end, she managed to swing the tie back toward her and won 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Sophomore Audrey Berger had an identical win over Eristavi on court 5. She too won the first set and lost the second, but eventually emerged victorious with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 score-line.

At the top of the list on court 1, Blanco had to fight back from a set down against Lyubomirova in order to win her match 3-6, 6-0, 6-3. Gollhofer experienced the same ordeal as she beat Myers 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 out on court 2. On court 4, it was the same story as Kuhle couldn’t capitalize on her first set win, eventually losing the next two sets to Ormond. It ended 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in favor of the Cardinals.

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