MUNCIE, Ind. – The Western Michigan women's tennis team dropped its Mid-American Conference opener on the road at defending champions Ball State, 5-2, on Sunday afternoon.
 
The doubles point went the distance with it all coming down to the No. 2 match between Lindsey Zieglar and Kaitlyn Rogosch and BSU's Emma Peeler and Mariya Polishchuk. The Cardinals had taken a 1-0 lead with 6-1 win at No. 3 but the Broncos responded with a 6-2 win at No. 1 by Ana Guadiana and Femke Tjon-A-Joe. Ziegler and Rogosch were down 5-1 for the deciding point but battled back to get it to 5-4 but ended up falling, 6-4, and the point going to Ball State.
 
In singles, BSU extended its lead to 2-0 with a win at No. 2 by Polischuk over Guadiana, 6-0, 6-1. Hannah Davies defeated WMU's Maya Perkucin at No. 5 6-1, 6-4 to push the lead to 3-0. The match was secured by the Cardinals after Elena Malykh beat Rogosch at No. 6 7-5, 6-1. Zieglar got the Broncos on the board with a 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-4) win at No. 1 over Peeler, while Karin Hamilton won 6-2, 2-6, 1-0 (10-6) at No. 3. Amy Kaplan finished off the match besting Tjon-A-Joe at No. 4 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5).
 
Western Michigan continues MAC play this week, welcoming Eastern Michigan on Friday at 1 p.m. and Miami on Sunday at 1 p.m.