Liederman proud of academic strength

Most people know Josh Liederman as captain of the men's tennis team. But Liederman knows himself as a student first, and an athlete second.

While the senior economics major is passionate about UB's tennis team, he cares just as much about the classroom.

"Academics come first," said Liederman. "That's not to say I don't work extremely hard on my athletics, but I'm not going pro after this. I view athletics as a way to enhance my college experience, but after I graduate, tennis is basically over."

Liederman credits his parents for being such great role models as he was maturing to adulthood.

"I really admired my parents growing up," said Liederman. "They're both hard workers. My dad's an attorney, and as I was growing up, that's what I wanted to be."

On the court, Liederman has begun to focus on doubles play.

"In high school I played mostly doubles, but I've always liked singles a lot better. Recently though, in college I've really come to appreciate doubles a lot more. I might even like doubles more," he said. "It's faster paced, and you try to hit people in doubles. In doubles you can get a lot more pumped up, it's a lot more intense."

This season, Liederman's record in doubles is 1-4, while his singles record is 4-21, 1-3 in the Mid-American Conference. Despite the down year record-wise, Liederman has some great memories from his past four years at UB, and feels he can still turn his season around.

"I have two great athletic moments. One took place last year when we beat University of Toledo in the first round of the conference championships; it was our first win ever in the conference tournament," he said. "This year we beat Toledo again, and my match was the deciding match. After I won the match, everybody stormed the court. Up to this point I've been struggling this year a little bit, but that match really helped me, because we beat Toledo and I was the hero for one day."

Liederman has big plans for when he is done with UB, he just doesn't know exactly what they are yet.

"My goal is to get my Masters (degree), maybe a Ph.D., and see where it works out from there," he said.

However, for Liederman, one thing is certain. The Queens native loves baseball. However, he does not cheer for the Mets, who play just a short subway ride away - instead, he is a devout Yankee fan.

"I'm a huge baseball fan," he said. "I've played my whole life. It's second only to tennis. As an athlete, I really admired Don Mattingly. I'm a huge Yankees fan. Don Mattingly is a guy who just went out there every day, worked the hardest, wasn't the fastest guy, but he just worked really hard, and that's something that I want to strive to be."