Extending its shutout streak to an impressive six victories in a row, the Marshall Thundering Herd trampled the UB women's tennis team 7-0 last Friday.
With this win Marshall, currently ranked 67th in the nation, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, brought its record to 13-7 overall and 5-1 in the Mid-American Conference. The Bulls meanwhile fell to 7-6 overall and 3-5 in the MAC.
"It's a nice opportunity (to play a team like Marshall). You practice and work hard, that's how you match up against a championship team, and a team that's ranked," said Bulls' head coach Kathy Twist.
Competing for the doubles point, Buffalo's top pair of Andreea Novaceanu and Kristen Ortman started off strong, but couldn't hold out against the nation's 60th-ranked twosome of Danielle Hock and Joelle Good, dropping an 8-4 decision.
UB's other pairs of Tina Jacob and Sabrina Carmona and Katrin Fischer and Miglena Nenova lost 8-0 and 8-1 respectively.
The match did not get any better for the Bulls, as only Andreea Novaceanu was able to win a set. Playing in the first singles position, the freshman scored a 6-3 victory to start the match. Marshall's Ashley Kroh came back, however, winning the next two sets, 6-0 and 6-2.
"Andreea actually was playing well against (Kroh)," said Twist. "I just think Kroh had more experience, Andreea is just a freshman. I think she was surprised she beat her so easily the first set and because of that, I think she lost a little focus and lost the next two sets."
Additionally, in the remaining five singles matches, the Thundering Herd swept the Bulls in straight sets and Marshall showed why they are one of the nation's top teams.
"I know some of the sets were 6-0, 6-0, but most of the games were hard fought," said Twist. "We might have been surprised that we could rally with them fairly well, they just did the rallies a little better then we did. I think the team got encouraged that we were not that far away from Marshall even though the score was 7-0."
Continuing their weekend road trip at Miami (Ohio), the Bulls fell to the RedHawks 5-2.
Starting on a strong note on Saturday, Buffalo won its second doubles match as Novaceanu and Tina Jacob downed Leda Pesatova and Kelly Douple, 8-4. UB's number one doubles team of Ortman and Nenova lost a tight match by a score of 8-6, while Fischer and Carmona clashed with Victoria Pulido and Remy Swain but couldn't take home the win, falling 8-3.
"I think we were a little disappointed. We have never beaten (Miami) but again we have a brand new team this year. We should have pulled out the first doubles, we were ahead actually 6-5," said Twist.
The third and fourth singles matches were hard-fought as Ortman won her first of three sets against Douple, 6-2. The junior couldn't clinch the victory, however, dropping the next two sets 6-4, 6-0.
Fischer, at the number four spot, won her first set by a 6-3 margin, but Miami's Pesatova rallied to win the next set 6-3 and sealed the deal with a 6-0 victory in the third set.
In the fifth and sixth singles spots, the Bull's Carmona and Jacob both lost in straight sets.
Coach Twist believes a big factor in many of the Bulls' individual losses can be attributed to the relative youth of the squad this year.
"We're a young team, we just need to learn that we need to stay focused every single point, every single game and when you're ahead you have to realize where the pressure is, the pressure is on (the opponent)," Twist said. "We just need to realize that we need to close out the match when we're ahead."
The Bulls hope to put their weekend woes behind them when they travel to Akron this Friday to face the Zips in their last regular season match this year.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
