Under the bright lights of the Village Glen Tennis Center in Williamsville, a David vs. Goliath battle ensued into late Friday night. The University at Buffalo men's tennis team faced off against the Ball State Cardinals, who were ranked No. 51 in the country, according to ITA rankings at the time of the match.
Despite getting swept in all their match-ups 7-0, and failing to win a single set in any match, the Bulls (11-10, 1-3 MAC) put up a hard fight against the Cardinals (11-5, 2-0 MAC), as they managed to extend numerous sets with single game wins, but could not pick up the match victories.
In doubles action, Buffalo's top team of Randy Rocchio and Nick Zieziula fell to Matt Baccarani and Kevin Burnett 8-5. Fery Kasiman and Rohan Raikar lost to Matt Laramore and Paul Newman in another 8-5 score. Josh Liederman and Rannga Prayudha lost to Patrick Thompson and Chris Varga 8-3.
UB seemed to be intimidated by Ball State's presence as they made a number of unforced errors, but managed to keep it close with well-placed shots and varying forehands, backhands, and lobs that kept the competition running around.
In singles action, Rocchio lost a close 7-5, 6-3 match to Burnett, Kasiman stumbled against Baccarani 6-4, 6-1, Liederman was shut down by Thompson 6-4, 6-2, Zieziula lost to Laramore 6-2, 7-5, Raikar dropped a 6-2, 6-0 decision against Klint Knable, and Prayudha fell to Brad Rhodes in the closest singles match of the match-up in a 7-6 (3) tie-breaker followed by a 6-1 set.
After a great effort in doubles play, the UB men's tennis team was defeated by Northern Illinois (10-7, 1-0 MAC) 7-0 Saturday afternoon at the Village Glen Tennis Center.
UB had an opportunity to gain an important point in the doubles portion of the match. Rocchio and Zieziula faced off in first doubles against NIU's top team, Raymond van Wasbeek and Aaron Forsberg. After falling behind 2-1 Rocchio and Zieziula battled back and won 8-5.
The second doubles team for UB consisted of Liederman and Prayudha. They ran out to a 4-0 lead but NIU's second team picked up some momentum and took eight of the next ten games to win 8-6.
UB's third team, composed of Fery Kasiman and Rohan Raikar, did not fair well, dropping their match to the Huskies 8-1.
In college tennis, winning the point for taking two of the three doubles matches is crucial to winning the match.
"Statistically, if you win the doubles point you win the match 75% of the time," said UB head coach Russ Crispell. "Today was a heartbreaker, we pull out an amazing win in (first doubles) ... then we were serving at 6-6 in the second (doubles) and (NIU's) guys played eight very solid points at the end and that was the difference."
After falling in doubles UB needed to win four of the six singles games to win the match. In first singles Kasiman played an inspired game against the Huskies top player, van Wasbeek. Kasiman took the first set the distance before losing 7-6. He then won the second set 6-2 before dropping the last set and consequently the match 6-3. The rest of the UB squad didn't fair nearly as well.
"I think they came out more positive than us in singles," said Rocchio. "They had a quick jump and it set the tone for the rest of the match. Everybody down the line fell behind early and (NIU) didn't give us any inches."
After playing such a high-energy doubles match, UB lost all six singles matches and were shut out by NIU 7-0. This match was originally scheduled to be played outdoors on what is supposed to be UB's home court at the Elicott complex. Being indoors had some effect on the play of the team.
"It's always better to play outside on your home court," said Rocchio. "I'm a sophomore and I've only been able to play there once."
"We are a much better outdoors team," said Crispell. "Our playing style is better for outdoors and if we played at UB we would've had not only home court but home crowd advantage."
The Bulls will take on Toledo Saturday at the Elicott complex. Inclement weather, however, is in the forecast and the match could be moved to the Village Glenn.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
