UB men’s tennis season ended Saturday with a 4-2 loss to the Western Michigan Broncos during the final match of the Mid-American Conference Championships. The Bulls played in front of the home crowd at Miller Tennis Center as Buffalo hosted the tournament for the first time in head coach Lee Nickell’s tenure.
Sophomore Villhelm “Ville” Fridell and senior Vidit Vaghela were named to the All-MAC tournament team during the championship ceremony. For Vaghela, the recognition was a small consolation for a senior who wanted another chance at the NCAA Tournament.
On Friday, Nickell expressed his opinion on the senior’s final season.
“I’m so happy for Vidit. That guy has had a rough year, had a few yips types of deals. But with his doubles play, he’s helped carry our team and for him to win like that today, I’m so happy for him.”
Next season, the Bulls will be without Vaghela and Vodak, the only two seniors on the team. Nickell described them as “program changers” and could not thank them enough for setting the benchmark of success for the program. The duo became the first-ever nationally ranked doubles team for the Bulls this season.
“It’s going to be super hard to lose these two and we’re going to miss them daily, but they’ve left this place better than when they came,” Nickell said. “We get the core of our group back, and we’ll bring in a few recruits. The only direction this program is going is up.”
The tournament began Friday afternoon with the No. 2 seed Bulls (13-10, 6-3 MAC) taking on the No. 3 seed Northern Illinois Huskies (15-8, 5-3 MAC). The matchup was the second time in two weeks the teams played, with Buffalo winning the first matchup 6-1. Friday’s matchup saw the Bulls clinch the doubles point to go up 1-0 early in the match.
“This was the best doubles we’ve played by far,” Nickell said. “It was fantastic to start off with that and it gives you just that little bit of confidence.”
Singles play did not go as well for the Bulls. Like last week, four of the six matches went to a third set. Vaghela was the only Bull to win in two sets 6-3, 6-1. As the first finisher, Vaghela won but had to watch and wait as the other five matches finished.
Up 2-0 in the match, senior Petr Vodak and sophomore Hao Sheng Koay both lost their matches and allowed Northern Illinois to tie 2-2. Next, freshman Nickolas Frisk won and junior Ethan Nittolo lost to keep the match tied at 3-3. All eyes were planted on court two as Fridell entered the third set against senior Eric Marbach from Northern Illinois. Marbach defeated Fridell in their matchup the week prior.
Fridell broke Marbach’s serve to take a two-game 5-3 lead. The crowd watched as Fridell, now serving, won the match for the Bulls. Fridell won four straight points to advance the Bulls to the final.
“We trust everybody in this moment, but we know that Ville is going to give the same level of competitiveness from start to finish,” Nickell said. “We could rest assured knowing we had the best chance to win with him out there. He handled the pressure so well.”
Even with everyone surrounding him, Fridell wasn’t aware of the immediate impact of his match.
“Everyone was cheering me on. I got so much energy from the crowd,” Fridell said. “That brought me up so much. Everything was positive. I hit some big shots in big moments and that also brought my energy way up. I felt really good in that spot.”
With the match finally over, the Bulls regrouped and refocused for Saturday’s match against the No. 1 seed Western Michigan Broncos (22-4, 7-0 MAC), the only team to beat Buffalo in conference play.
The Bulls began Saturday the same as Friday. Buffalo won the doubles point and were the first MAC team to beat Western Michigan in doubles all season. Freshman Matthew Johnson and Nittolo clinched the point with a 6-4 victory. Vaghela and senior Petr Vodak won the first doubles match 6-3, in the duo’s final collegiate match together.
Western Michigan dominated the Bulls in singles play. Frisk, Vodak and Koay all lost in two sets while Nittolo was the only Bull to win in two. Up 3-2, all eyes were on Fridell again as he entered a second set tiebreaker with Western Michigan sophomore Jannik Opitz. Fridell took the tiebreak 8-6 and forced the third set. Opitz gathered himself and took charge the third set, winning it 6-1 and making Western Michigan the 2018 MAC Champions.
“We gave our best shot,” Nickell said. “We played as well as we could.”
While Western Michigan celebrated their accomplishment, Nickell huddled his team together and congratulated them on the season.
“This year was such a success,” Nickell told the team. “We went through some ups and downs, but took care of business against teams that we were supposed to beat. Western has a bit more resources than we do, and it’s always a monumental effort to beat them. This year they were just too good.”
Nathaniel Mendelson is the assistant sports editor and can be reached at nathaniel.mendelson@ubspectrum.com.
