Although weather conditions delayed the start of Saturday's women's tennis match, the Bulls dealt with the rain and handily defeated the St. Francis Red Flash. The Bulls swept the Red Flash 7-0 to improve their overall record to 2-0 on the 2004 fall season.
"I think that our team has grown in many different ways. We had lots of challenging things that came our way but we were able to put it aside and take care of what needed to be done," said veteran player Onessa Williams. "We knew what we wanted out of our match and that was to go out there and have fun and at the same time claim a victory."
Inclement weather was present when the two teams faced off last season as well. Buffalo lost that match to St. Francis under the same windy, rainy and cloudy conditions. This year, however, the team was able to make a more concentrated effort and ignore the weather to focus on their individual efforts.
"It was very cloudy, windy and the rain was going in and out, but our team was so focused that none of these issues bothered us," said Williams. "Last year we had this same kind of weather and we did not do as good we did this year."
After the rain stopped, the Bulls collected a plethora of victories over St. Francis, grabbing all five spots in the singles competition. Miglena Nenova and Katrin Fischer both scored "double-bagel," or shutout, victories in their singles matches and displayed exceptional precision on the court to lead the Bulls in the shutout victory.
The dual matches were another bright spot for UB, with all three of the Bulls' doubles teams dominating their competition.
UB's number one doubles team of Andreea Novaceanu and Tina Jacob beat St. Francis' Lesley Wenzel and Roxy Ionescu, 8-0, while the team of Kristen Ortman and Nenova shut out Rebecca Seybold and Danielle Gauthier, 8-0 to claim the number two doubles match. Rounding out the doubles competition, Williams and Fisher defeated Eva Keresztes and Mallary Palmer by a score of 8-1.
In their matches so far this season, the Bulls have shown a strong initiative to make it to the Mid-American Conference finals. UB has started off strong, similar to the strong start the women displayed last season. The key to success this season, however, will be for the Bulls to keep the ball rolling and to continue the positive momentum through the middle of the season. The team is optimistic about the remainder of the season and making it to finals.
"I think the team will make it to the finals. The team is very determined to win this weekend. We have the self-confidence and we are ready mentally and physically. And what I mean by mentally and physically is that we will have a plan before we step foot on any of the courts," said Williams. "Our team has goals that we go by. We read those goals everyday before practice so that we know what we want to accomplish during our match, practice and at the end of our season. We are a very organized team."
The Bulls will be getting mentally and physically ready for action this weekend when they travel to Binghamton on Saturday to participate in the Binghamton Invitational Tournament. UB will face competition from various teams including the host Bearcats, Colgate, Siena and Albany.
