It can be hard to live up to high expectations, but the women's tennis team has not disappointed thus far in their season. The Bulls (2-0), the favorite to win the Mid-American Conference, downed Syracuse 6-1 in a non-conference match-up on Saturday, at the Village Glen in Williamsville.
Buffalo has not lost a doubles match all season, and they continued that stretch against the Orange (3-3) with wins from all three of their pairings.
"We did even better than last year when we beat Syracuse. So [after beating them] two years in a row, I think everybody realizes it's for real now," said head coach Kathy Twist.
The Bulls led off with their number one doubles pair of sophomore Denise Harijanto and freshman Diana Popescu. The duo defeated Christina Tan and Simone Kalhorn by a score of 8-1.
Junior Smaranda Stan and sophomore Diana Toia were next to take action, facing off against Maria Vasilyeva and Chelsea Jones. The Buffalo duo cruised to an 8-3 victory.
The sweep of the doubles matches was then left on the shoulders of seniors Andreea Novaceanu and Tina Jacob. The pair secured the point with an 8-6 win over Syracuse's Ashley Spicer and Jacquelynn Tang.
Twist attributed the success in doubles play to hard work in practice and building chemistry between the pairings.
"We've always been strong in singles, always. But we have really really worked in the doubles," Twist said. "We do doubles every single day. We tell ourselves what we're going to do with each ball. [We stress] lots of communication between partners."
Buffalo then came out and won six of their seven singles matches, three of which ended in straight sets.
Novaceanu got the ball rolling for Buffalo in the singles matches when she was up against Christina Tan in first singles. Novaceanu defeated Tan in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Also winning in straight sets was Popescu, who beat Maria Vasilyeva 6-2, 6-3. Toia then made easy work of Jacquelynn Tang in fifth singles by a score of 6-2, 6-0.
"The whole team was so positive, supportive, they just did everything that we did all week long," Twist said. "They're all great but the one who has made the largest stride is Diana Toia at number five. We put her in the lineup at five and she just dominated in doubles...She's just one of the younger players who has found her stride."
In the second singles match, Simone Kalhorn defeated Harijanto, 6-4, 4-6, 6-0. Jacob beat the Orange's Jones 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 in sixth singles to lock up another point for the Bulls. Stan came from behind in her victory over Ashley Spitzer. After losing the first set to Spitzer 1-6, she rallied back to win the match with two straight wins, 6-1,7-5.
The Bulls will next travel to Princeton on Feb. 17 for their first road match of the year. The dual meet is scheduled to start at 1 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
