After a strong showing in the Buffalo/Bonaventure classic, the UB's men's tennis team will be hitting the camping trail for the first time this year to participate in the Dartmouth Invitational. In addition to Dartmouth, the Bulls will face Army, Niagara and Colgate.
From a team like Army, they can expect conditioning.
"Army is loaded, those guys are well -- they're 'West Point' people, the guys that are there are in absolutely incredible shape," said Bulls' head coach Russ Crispell.
To compete with Army, Buffalo will have to garner an exceptional amount of focus when they enter the match.
"It's mental toughness on our part," said Crispell. "Last year we took six of eight singles against them."
So far this year, there hasn't been any rock and roll music coming out of Buffalo, as Randy Rocchio and Nick Zieziula weren't paired together for any matches in this year's Fall Classic.
"Right now, Randy is coming off an injury that he sustained late last year, and because of that injury the last thing I want him to do is have him re-injure his arm playing on that level," said Crispell.
It is intended that Rocchio will recover fully and be able to rejoin Zieziula as UB's top doubles pairing, but until then, the doubles pairings aren't exactly suffering. At the Fall Classic, UB swept the doubles matches from both Youngstown State and St. Bonaventure. Crispell credits much of the success that the Bulls have enjoyed in doubles play to the experience that both Rocchio and Zieziula bring to their new doubles partners.
"The teams that they paired up with played great doubles," Crispell said. "It's a good opportunity for them to be teachers as well."
And while Rocchio and Zieziula are teaching, the rest of the team is learning how to win, match after match.
"Last week's results were indicative of the fact that they did learn," said Crispell. "That to me was the highlight of the tournament. Bonaventure has some outstanding doubles teams that have traditionally given us trouble, and we swept them."
The Bulls played many successful matches at the Fall Classic, and they will ride the positive momentum gained in that success into the Dartmouth Invitational. The team has been working exceptionally hard at practice, with the main focus being on putting matches away.
"We've been spending a lot of time on this, working on finishing a point. Our guys played the big points really well, and that's something you've got to concentrate on," said Crispell.
In order to make sure that the team is going to be conditioned enough to compete with Army, coach Crispell is going to continue the team's policy of camping out.
"When we compete against Army, you have got to do anything you can for conditioning, and this is one of the easiest ways to do it," said Crispell.
Regardless of the conditions, the tennis team is not going to be staying in a hotel. Even with the recent hurricane scares across the east coast, Crispell remains steadfast in his beliefs.
"We don't care if there's a hurricane coming, we'll be camping out," he said.
The Bulls will begin play on Thursday, with the tournament scheduled to run through Sunday.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
