On short notice, and down a player due to injury, the Buffalo men's tennis team delivered a strong victory against visiting St. Francis University on Saturday.
In a late scheduling move, the Red Flash of St. Francis came into Buffalo to face off against the Bulls after doing battle with the Niagara Golden Griffins over the weekend.
The Buffalo win marks the teams first dual match victory of the year, and first victory in blue and white for new head coach Sherif Zaher. The match also served as a way for the Bulls to showcase their talent in front of several recruits who were in town for homecoming weekend.
The Bulls only losses came by forfeit as the team could not field a third doubles pairing or a sixth singles player, as senior Albert Alant is still recovering from an ankle injury.
"We hope to have Albert back in a few weeks, it's a good sign that he has started to walk on it," Zaher said. "For now his teammates picked up the slack and won every other match of the afternoon."
It didn't look good from the start however as the top doubles pairing of senior Mike Rockman and junior Nikesh Singh Panthlia found themselves in an early hole against the St. Francis duo of Andrei Sandu and Jeffrey Seavers, 4-1. The Buffalo tandem, however, came from behind to win seven straight points to close out the match.
"We came out flat, we let them get comfortable, and any time you let someone get comfortable your going to be in trouble," said assistant coach Nick Zieziula.
After a pep talk from Zieziula the pair never looked back.
"We turned up the intensity," Rockman said. "It kind of went from there."
Senior Yules Hadisubroto and sophomore Octavian Stane teamed up to defeat David Kirby and Jordan Kowalski in the second doubles match. After securing the doubles point, the team focused on its singles play.
Rockman again faced Andrei Sandu in the top singles match and again defeated him to the tune of 6-2, 6-1.
"Playing him twice, I got used to his serve," Rockman said. "It helped me to handle his big first serve."
To highlight the singles matches Singh Panthlia beat Ajay Nune, 6-0, 6-0. Duplicating the feat was Octavian Stane in his match against Kyle Primeau. Both played with a fiery passion and yelled words of encouragement across the courts to teammates. Hadisubroto nearly matched his teammates accomplishments, falling just short of perfection in his 6-0, 6-1 winning effort against Seevers.
The only singles match that was closely contested was that of Bulls freshman Eric Rothstein who played Jordan Kowalski. The match involved a first set tiebreak that was won by Rothstein before he finished off his opponent in the second set for a 7-6 (2), 6-2 victory.
The match filled in the Bulls' October schedule, and fit nicely into a lengthy layoff for the team after their strong showing at the Dartmouth Vokl Shootout. Short notice or not the match was still valuable to the team. It allowed them to work on doubles combinations and to shake off any rust that might have developed in their time off.
"Any time you can pick up experience it helps, it makes a big difference." Zieziula said, "We felt confident coming in, our conditioning, our hitting sequences, and our shot making really helped us. The little things set us apart."
The team is next in action on Oct. 19 in Philadelphia for the ITA Regionals. It looks to continue their momentum into the event.
"Last year I made it to the third round, I feel like I can do as well or better this year," Rockman said. "I just want to play tennis, because I love it.
