(BALL STATE RELEASE)
MUNCIE, Ind. - The Ball State women's tennis team under the direction of eighth-year head coach Max Norris will open its 2021 spring action Sunday afternoon when it travels to Louisville for a 3 p.m. ET first serve.
Louisville has won the two previous matches, including last season's 5-2 win in Muncie. Sophomore Amy Kaplan along with teammate junior Livia Lukacs both earned singles victories over Louisville that match.
The Cardinals are coming off of one of their best spring starts in 2020 before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. BSU owned a 10-2 non conference ledger prior to the shutdown.
A lot of Ball State's success in 2020 was due to its freshmen class, as the Cardinals' top four singles spots were held by true freshmen. Jessica Braun played mainly on court one for Ball State, while Emma Peeler saw action at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles positions. Amy Kaplan competed primarily on courts three and four, while newcomer Emily Desai joined the team in January and made her presence known at the No. 6 slot with a 7-2 mark.
Braun earned MAC weekly honors after posting a 3-0 record the weekend of Feb. 14-16 with wins against Northern Iowa, Findlay and Oakland.
The Cardinals return seven letter winners from last year including seniors Victoria Sec and Rebecca Herrington. Also coming back with experience is junior Lukacs, Braun, Desai, Kaplan and Peeler.
Ball State welcomes four newcomers; Isabella Behrman, Martina Bocchi, Silivia Martinez and Mariya Polishchuk.
In seven seasons, Norris has led the program to accomplishments that had never been achieved. Norris is the only coach in program history to take the Cardinals to MAC regular season and tournament titles and a berth to the NCAA tournament (2016). He has coached the Cardinals to an impressive 112-40 (.736) overall mark and a 32-13 (.711) MAC ledger.
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