MUNCIE, Ind. -- The third-seeded Western Michigan men's tennis team defeated second-seeded Ball State, 4-2, in the semifinals of the 2010 Mid-American Conference Championships at Ball State on Friday afternoon. The Broncos (20-10) advance to play regular season champion Buffalo (13-6) in the championship match on Saturday at 1 p.m. with a berth in the 2010 NCAA Championships on the line.

The match was moved indoors to the Muncie YMCA Tennis Center because of high winds exceeding 25 miles per hour in the area.

"It was a good match and I've got to give credit to Ball State for playing well," head coach Dave Morin said. "I thought we played okay, but I've also seen us play a lot better and we'll have to against Buffalo."

Ball State took the early lead in doubles with an 8-4 victory at No. 1, but junior Casey Cullen and sophomore Pablo Olivarez breezed to an 8-3 win at No. 3 for Cullen's 32nd doubles win of the season and the eighth win in a row for the tandem.

The match came down to No. 2 doubles where junior Kazuya Komada and sophomore Zeyad Montasser led, 7-5, with chances to win, but let the Cardinals (16-10) battle back to force a tiebreaker. The Broncos regrouped and won the tiebreaker, 9-8 (3), to put the Broncos on top, 1-0.

WMU also won the doubles point in the regular season meeting against the Cardinals, but let several big leads in singles get away as BSU staged a dramatic comeback.

The Broncos won four of six first sets in the singles on Friday to take command of the match, but still let the Cardinals hang around in some matches.

At the top of the lineup, however, the Broncos were able to push the lead to 3-0 with a nearly simultaneous finish by Komada and Michael Calderone at No. 2 and No. 1.

Komada won 6-3, 6-3 over Cliff Morrison, while Calderone bounced back from his doubles setback to become the first MAC player this season to defeat BSU's Eduardo Pavia 6-3, 7-5.

"Mike came up big for us today with that win over Pavia," Morin said. "He's taken some losses recently that have really hit him hard and I think he lost some confidence. You didn't see that today though. He was mentally strong and this is huge for us going forward into the championship match. I also can't leave out Kaz. He's just been rock solid for us all year and we really needed both of his wins today."

The Cardinals wouldn't go down quietly as tournament hosts and mounted a comeback with straight set wins at No. 6 and No. 4 to make things interesting, 3-2, by cutting the margin to one.

The Broncos wouldn't let the Cardinals complete another dramatic comeback this season as freshman Simon Blomberg won his 27th singles match of the season to tie Calderone for the team high with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Shaun Bussert at No. 5 to seal the victory.

"I'm proud of the guys and we'll take the win, but we need to take the next step forward and play a complete match without taking points off," Morin said. "We've done a good job of building leads, but tomorrow we need to do a better job of staying aggressive and not getting cautious when we get ahead."

The Broncos lost to the Bulls, 4-3, in Buffalo on April 3. The Broncos trailed, 3-0, the entire match, but fought back to even the score at three before dropping the final match on the court. Buffalo will be playing in its first conference tournament final, while the Broncos are striving for their fifth consecutive tournament victory and trip to the NCAA Championships.

#3 Western Michigan 4, #2 Ball State 2
Apr 30, 2010 at Muncie, Ind. (Muncie YMCA Tennis Center)