Men's tennis leaves Cornell with few highlights

Nikesh Singh Panthlia made it to the semi-finals in his B bracket and Mike Rockman advanced to the quarterfinals on the A side before both players bowed out to stiff competition last weekend in the Cornell Invitational.

Competing in its final event of the fall, the UB men's tennis team made the trek out to Ithaca where Cornell, Hofstra, Fairfield, Colgate, Army, Boston University, and Marist faced off in eight different tournaments.

Assistant Coach Nick Zieziula said the event was a good test for the Bulls.

"It was solid playing against Boston U, Marist, Army, Colgate and Cornell," Zieziula said. "They have some solid players. It was not as strong as the ITA was but for and end of the season tournament it was stiff competition."

Sophomore Yules Hadisubroto and junior Rockman represented UB in the A singles bracket. Rockman advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating Luka Djordjevic of Hofstra 6-1, 4-6, 6-0, before eventually falling to Peter Kung of Cornell 6-4, 7-6.

Hadisubroto did not fare as well as his teammate as he lost to Joshua Goldstein of Cornell 6-6, 6-2 in the round of sixteen. Hadisubroto also dropped his only match in the A consolation round to Boston University's Barrett Wolf.

UB entered two players in the B singles bracket. Freshman Singh Panthlia went farther than any other UB player or duo at the tournament as he advanced to the semi-finals.

Singh Panthlia started out with a 6-7, 6-2, 6-1 win over Matt Schor from Hofstra. He then moved on to the quarterfinals to beat Army's Sean Harris, 5-7, 6-0, 2-0, but ultimately lost to Mickey Gallagher of Colgate in the semifinals by a score of 6-4, 6-3.

Freshman Octvaian Stane had an earlier exit from the bracket as he lost to David Collins of Army 7-5, 6-7, 6-3. Stane redeemed himself with a win in the consolation bracket as he beat Schor before losing to Ross Luhr of Binghamton University.

The C bracket saw four Bulls players in competition. Junior Albert Alant went the deepest into the competition as he beat Hans Sapra of Boston University, 6-0, 6-1, and then Glen Gannon from Fairfield 2-6, 6-0, 6-1, before being taken down by Cornell's Weston Nichols 6-3, 6-2.

Seniors Matthew Kennedy and Mike Zappone both advanced one round with Kennedy beating Marist's Federico Rolon, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 but dropped the next game to Zachary Morrison of Fairfield, 6-1, 6-2. Zappone beat out Fairfield's Michael Cuozzo 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 and then yielded a victory to Yannick Sollberger from Marist 6-3, 6-2.

Rounding out UB's C-bracket participants was senior Joe Popielarczyk who lost in the first round to Colgate's Matthew McCormick 6-7, 6-3 and then to Matthew Chiricosta of Fairfield, 6-2, 4-6, in the consolation bracket.

Although UB saw some success in the singles area, the Bulls struggled in the doubles as its four duos failed to win a match. UB's top team of Hadisubroto and Singh Panthlia received a first-round bye in the A doubles but lost a tough match to Cornell's Ray Wu and Mark Asch 9-8 (4).

Zieziula said Hadisubroto and Singh Panthlia's match as the most exciting game of the weekend.

"It was the best match at the tournament site," Zieziula said. "Both teams played unbelievably. They lost in a tiebreaker.

The other team representing UB in the A bracket was Kennedy and Alant. The Bulls suffered a first round defeat as they fell to Marist's squad of Mark Santucci and Rolon, 8-4.

"Part of the reason for troubles was the changing of formations," Zieziula said. "We had some good wins though. Overall the stats weren't magnificent but we learned a lot."

The losing trend continued into the B doubles bracket with Zappone and Rockman losing to Bryant Yung and Kung of Cornell, 8-4 and Stane and Popielarczyk falling to Boston University's Miron Nesin and Philip Demeo by a score of 9-7.

The Bulls next event won't be until Jan. 20 when the team travels to Brown University in Providence, R.I.

In the meantime, Zieziula said that the team plans on reviewing its matches from the fall in an effort to improving for the spring season.

"The fall season isn't our main season," he said. "We can go 15-0 in the fall, but if you don't learn anything from it, you won't improve in the spring."