{"id":563079,"date":"2026-03-26T23:17:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/563079\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T23:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:17:11","slug":"cardinals-clinches-thriller-as-mens-tennis-defeats-toledo-4-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/563079\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals Clinches Thriller as Men\u2019s Tennis Defeats Toledo, 4-3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MUNCIE, Ind. (March 26, 2026) \u2014 In a high-stakes Mid-American Conference battle that came down to the final court, the Ball State men&#8217;s tennis team secured a gritty 4-3 victory over Toledo on Thursday afternoon at the First Serve Tennis Complex.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Cardinals (9-8, 4-2 MAC) successfully defended their home courts in a match defined by late-set heroics and a dominant start in doubles play. The win completes a regular-season sweep of the Rockets, following Ball State&#8217;s 5-2 road victory earlier this month.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nBall State took an early lead by clinching the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. The Hayward brothers, Nolan and Drew, secured the opening point for the Cardinals in a gritty 7-6 (8-6) tiebreaker.\u00a0<br \/>\nAs singles play began, <a href=\"https:\/\/ballstatesports.com\/sports\/mens-tennis\/roster\/jeremy-milette\/13114\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"13114\" target=\"_blank\">Jeremy Milette<\/a> (No. 4) and <a href=\"https:\/\/ballstatesports.com\/sports\/mens-tennis\/roster\/broc-fletcher\/10638\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"10638\" target=\"_blank\">Broc Fletcher<\/a> (No. 6) picked up crucial victories to extend the Ball State lead. However, the Rockets fought back with wins at the No. 1, No. 3, and No. 5 spots, leveling the match at 3-3.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nAs the match remained deadlocked until the very end, with the final point decided in a three-set marathon at the No. 2 singles position. <a href=\"https:\/\/ballstatesports.com\/sports\/mens-tennis\/roster\/andrei-caragea\/13111\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"13111\" target=\"_blank\">Andrei Caragea<\/a> proved to be the hero for the Cardinals, battling back to defeat Toledo&#8217;s Poonthong Komolpisut 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the team victory.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Ball State men&#8217;s tennis team hosts Buffalo this Saturday at 1 p.m. ET for their final home match of the season. Depending on the weather, the action will take place either at the First Serve Tennis Complex or the Foster Adams Family\/Bill Richards courts. Before the first serve, the Cardinals will hold a special ceremony to honor seniors <a href=\"https:\/\/ballstatesports.com\/sports\/mens-tennis\/roster\/broc-fletcher\/10638\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"10638\" target=\"_blank\">Broc Fletcher<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/ballstatesports.com\/sports\/mens-tennis\/roster\/jacks-lancaster\/10639\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"10639\" target=\"_blank\">Jacks Lancaster<\/a>.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MUNCIE, Ind. (March 26, 2026) \u2014 In a high-stakes Mid-American Conference battle that came down to the final&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-563079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}