When the men's tennis team traveled to Colgate University over the weekend they expected to be taking on the Raiders. Little did they know they would end up having to battle an unruly crowd as well.
The Bulls made quick work of the Raiders winning the doubles point and their first three singles matches to clinch the match. The rest of the match would be delayed as Buffalo head coach Sharif Zaher refused to send his players back onto the court due to various obscenities and abuse coming from the Colgate crowd.
"Their fans were extremely rude and vulgar they were yelling obscenities and yelling out stuff to our players as they were playing. It was really like beyond anything I've ever seen," Zaher said.
The Bulls went up 4-0 and the matches were clinched, that's when Zaher pulled his players off the court and refused to continue the matches until all the fans were removed from the facility. When the competition finally resumed, the Bulls went on to drop two of the remaining matches, winning overall by a score of 5-2.
Buffalo opened up the matches by winning in the number one and two matches to claim the doubles point. In the first doubles match, it was freshman Marcelo Mazzetto and senior Nikesh Singh Panthlia who defeated Colgate's Martin MacIntyre and Tyler Deck, 8-6.
In the number two match, it was Buffalo Sophomore Kirill Kolomytes and freshman Juan Carlos Wynter who clinched the doubles point for the Bulls by defeating John Nogueras and Michael Yassky, 9-7. In the third and final doubles match, it was Colgate's Phil Bernasek and Rusian Goussiantnikov who would steal the match from Buffalo juniors Alexis Lluis and Octavian Stane, 8-6.
The doubles point was an important point for the Bulls to get. This was only the second time all season long that they were able to win in their doubles and gain a point to give them momentum going into their singles matches.
"We started off winning the doubles point which was a big one for us because we worked on it all week," Zaher said. "Obviously, you want to use that point to get ahead on the scoreboard and using that doubles point for momentum is what we look for and we haven't really done a good job of that so far, but today we did a great job at that."
The Bulls carried their strong play into singles matches where they were able to put together three straight wins, all in straight sets. Singh Panthlia, Kolomytes and Stane stole the show in their singles matches contributing to the 4-0 run that clinched the match.
Panthlia at the number two spot took out Colgate's Tyler Deck, 6-4, 6-4. Kolomytes in the number three slot made quick work of John Nogueras by defeating him, 6-2, 6-0. The Bulls then relied on Stane to win in the number four spot so they could clinch the match. He did just that and brought home a victory by out dueling Colgate's Phil Bernasek, 6-1, 7-5.
It was at this juncture in the match when Zaher decided to pull his players off of the court due to obscene and vulgar comments and refused to play until all the fans were gone.
When play resumed, Buffalo had picked up where they had left off with Wynter winning in the number six match over Colgate's Michael Shea, 6-1, 7-6. After Wynter's victory the Bulls fell off track, dropping the last two matches.
Marcelo Mazzetto, in the number one spot, lost in straight sets to Colgate's Martin MacIntyre, 6-3, 7-5. In the number five match Alexis Lluis dropped his bout against Michael Yassky in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
All in all, the Bulls did what they had to do against the Raiders; they improved their overall record to 2-6 while pushing Colgate into an 0-5 hole.
"Every team that we play right now is so competitive and plays at a high level its not like they were showing us anything that we haven't seen but its definitely good to get out there and show that we've worked hard and improved over the last couple of weeks and get a better performance" Zaher said.
The Bulls will be back in action at home on Feb. 22 against Manhattan and Feb. 24 against Toledo.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
