History repeated itself Sunday as the rematch of last year’s MAC final ended with the NIU men’s tennis team losing 4-3 to defending MAC champions Ball State.

The decisive match came at No. 3 singles between juniors Erick Martinez and Ball State’s Matt Laramore. After Martinez won the first set in a 7-6 tiebreak, Laramore rallied to take the next two sets 6-3 and 6-4 to give the Cardinals (11-11 overall, 4-0 MAC) the match-clinching fourth point.

“I kept fighting, even though I wasn’t playing really well,” Martinez said. “I hung in there until the last points and just came up a little short. The match was really tight and intense.”

While the total match time was more than three and a half hours, the opening doubles matches lasted only 45 minutes as the Huskies (14-5, 1-2) were beaten 8-3 at all three slots.

Senior Juan Pablo Barriga gave NIU its first point with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Patrick Thompson.

“Barriga has played well in singles the last few weeks,” NIU coach Pontus Hiort said. “He hasn’t played so well in doubles lately, but then he came out in singles and really stepped it up and played at a completely different level. He’s been very valuable for us.”

Ball State answered with triumphs at No. 5 and 6 singles, forcing the Huskies to need victory in the remaining matches at No. 1, 3 and 4 singles if they wanted to win the match.

Freshman Jack Komar came through with a 6-2, 7-5 victory at No. 4 to set up the deciding showdown between Martinez and Laramore.

The closeness of the matches coupled with swirling winds affected line calls, which were debated on a number of occasions.

“Some calls are going to go this way; some calls are going to go that way,” Hiort said. “But I don’t think it affected the outcome of the match.”

Senior Willy Gali ended the day with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory at No. 1 singles over Matthew Baccarani.

“I lost to that guy last year at the tournament, so it was good to beat him,” Gali said. “I was having trouble serving today because of the wind, so I double faulted a lot. I just tried to keep the ball in and play conservative. We’ll go after them in the MAC for sure.”