This weekend, the women's tennis team will be putting final exams, term papers and other end-of-semester activities to the side as the Bulls compete for the Mid-American Conference title.
The Bulls (8-6 overall, 4-5 MAC) are set to face Miami (Ohio) on Friday in the opening round of this year's MAC tournament. Miami achieved a 7-2 MAC record this season and a 16-6 overall record. Additionally, the RedHawks took the victory in the lone match between the two teams earlier this season.
Bulls' head coach Kathy Twist has changed her team's practice routine just slightly, mainly to focus on the strength of the teams that Bulls will be facing. Furthermore, Twist is pleased with how her players are prepared for the upcoming tournament.
"I think that we're becoming a little bit more focused, we're pretty good at each practice but I think now we're setting our sights on what exactly needs to be done against these teams," Twist said. "We've seen them before so we're doing patterns that should help us get ready to defeat our opponents specifically. We're taking a strategy for each opponent."
Though the Bulls experienced little success in the MAC tournament last year, Twist remains optimistic about the way in which the team will respond at this year's tournament.
"I'm not sure we approach anything differently, but I think we have a different team this year that understands that you have to come out and play well consistently against MAC schools," said Twist.
Twist attributes this season's loss to Miami mostly to the fact that the Bulls lost the doubles point in the match. Buffalo was able to take one out of the three doubles matches, and they were close in one other. Kristen Ortman and Miglena Nenova led twice in their doubles match, but were unable to come out on top, losing the match 8-6.
"We discussed doubles and how we should have that point," Twist commented. "We should have taken that doubles point against Miami, they were up 5-4 and again 6-5, that would have put us ahead 1-0."
In addition to Nenova and Ortman winning their doubles match, Twist believes it wouldn't be a stretch to expect Katrin Fischer and Sabrina Carmona to win their match as well. The two are 3-5 in doubles play this year, including a 2-4 conference record.
Going into the tournament, the Bulls won a decisive match last weekend on the road at Akron, 6-1. The Bulls were able to record the doubles point, and win five of the six singles matches.
"One of our goals against Akron was everybody play strong in doubles, in singles we always play strong," said Twist. "So everybody that practiced all week in doubles played strong, everybody down the line played stronger in doubles."
Of course, the doubles point is still just one point, and the Bulls will need to be victorious in three singles matches in order to claim any one match. There will be no guarantees for the Bulls at any of the singles spots, but Buffalo should have its best chance to win singles matches with Andreea Novaceanu on the court. The freshman won 19 matches this year while dropping just five. Other double-digit victors for the Bulls include Nenova, Ortman and Fischer. Each has won over 12 matches this year and having recently won the doubles point in a conference match, Twist feels as though the Bulls are doing what they have to do going into the tournament to be able to succeed at the highest level possible.
"(Winning the doubles point) definitely gives us a big boost to see that we're peaking right before the tournament," Twist said. "We can win as long as everybody understands that every point is important, we're not going to take anybody lightly, we're going to go in with all our weapons and leave it out there because there is no tomorrow," she said.
The Bulls will begin 2005 MAC tournament competition on Friday against Miami, with first serve slated for 10 a.m. Should the Bulls defeat the RedHawks, they will advance to the second round of competition on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
