MUNCIE, INDIANA— Ball State Women’s Tennis took on James Madison University to start off the weekend. On Friday afternoon, the cardinals suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Dukes, which ended a home win streak of over three years.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to be a championship team,” Senior Amy Kaplan said.
The defending MAC champions found themselves down early after losing the doubles point and couldn’t come back after that. The number one and number three doubles of Ball State both lost so the number two matches remain unfinished.
“We’re not satisfied at all with how we have been playing,” said Kaplan.
Masha Polishchuk and Amy Kaplan took both of their matches but James Madison equaled both of those efforts and then some.
Number one singles Emma Peeler played a tough, competitive match but eventually lost in the third set.
After stealing another singles match to lead 3-2, the cardinals needed Elena Malykh to tie up the singles score and she delivered in the third set.
“We had a bunch of players step up when they needed to,” Kaplan said in reference to Malykh.
The match came down to the number five singles match to determine who would take the overall win. Annika Planinsek fought another back and forth match with her opponent James Madison.
Planinsek took this first set in a triumphant 7-5 win. She lost the next two sets in a tight match to end the day for the Cardinals.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they couldn’t complete the comeback and eventually lost the match 4-3, handing Ball State their first home loss since Jan. 24, 2020.
“We’re looking to bounce back,” Kaplan said when mentioning the team's upcoming road game on Friday at Cleveland State.
Contact Brandon Beaman with comments at brandon.beaman@bsu.edu
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