Women's tennis bounces back

The Bulls scored a close win over Mid-American conference powerhouse Ball State on Saturday, salvaging a weekend that started off with a crushing defeat to Bowling Green.

Friday's loss to the Falcons (9-5 overall, 1-1 MAC) was the Bulls' first outdoor match of the spring.

"We knew because we were outdoors, it would be a little different," said head coach Kathy Twist. "It's kind of an adjustment period, when you go from indoors to outdoors."

Despite their loss against the Falcons, the Bulls came out strong the next day against Ball State, defeating the Cardinals 4-3.

"It was awesome," said Twist. "Ball State is in the middle of the pack for the MAC. They're strong all the way down. It was huge, monumental for us to beat Ball State."

The Bulls got behind early, losing the doubles point. Their number one doubles pairing of Andreea Novaceanu and Kristen Ortman was the only pair to win a doubles match.

"We lost the doubles point, which is sometimes tough to come back from, because you have to win four (singles) matches, which is hard," said Twist.

But UB made a strong run, winning the day's only three-set match, which saw Miglena Nenova outlast Ball State's Haly Calderwood 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

"It came down to Maggie Nenova," said Twist. "In her match, they split sets. She played a very good player at third singles. Maggie, with her strength and conditioning that she was doing, was able to finish stronger in the third set than in the rest of her match."

Novaceanu was involved in another tough match for the Bulls, as she won the first set of her singles match 7-5, but was able to come back strong in the second set and won it 6-1 at first singles against Cardinals' number one, Jenny Batty.

"She played the first set at 7-5, it was a real battle," said Twist. "These kids are in such great shape, though, that she won the second set 6-1."

Another strong match for the Bulls came from Katrin Fischer at number four singles. She won her match against Jennifer Pollack, 6-2, 6-2.

"She had a really strong opponent and she had to stick to a strategy of high loopy balls to get her out of her power zone," said Twist.

Coming up for the Bulls is another set of two matches in two days. The first is against Northern Illinois on Friday, and the second is against Western Michigan on Saturday.

Last year, the Bulls lost to both teams, losing 4-3 to Northern Illinois 4-3 and 7-0 to Western Michigan the next day.

Both matches are set to start at 3 p.m. at the Village Glen Tennis Center in Williamsville.