After two months off, the men's tennis team was back in action this past weekend as the spring season began.
The Bulls (1-1) visited Rhode Island, hoping to set the spring campaign right with victories over both Bryant University and Brown University. After leaving The Ocean State, the Bulls came out with mixed results.
On Saturday, the Bulls visited Bryant (2-3), hoping for the younger players to gain some experience from the Bulldogs. The Bulls earned seven wins in nine matches, which earned them a win.
"It was definitely a good confidence booster that three out of six starting players that day were new for this year," said Buffalo head coach Sherif Zaher. "It was important for these guys to get a win under their belt, so that was pretty good."
The Bulls won the doubles point with a pair of wins, including a 7-4 tiebreaker win in the third match thanks to freshman Kristof Custers and senior Alexis Lluis. The duo was victorious over Bryant's doubles team of Nicholai Hill and Zehn Laliwala. In singles play, Buffalo won the top five contests-all in straight sets-with Custers picking up a 6-0, 6-1 win over Bryant's Thomas Nowak in the fourth event.
???On Sunday, the Bulls traveled to Brown (5-1), hoping to use their momentum from down the road to help them defeat the Bears. Brown's team was too talented for the Bulls, as Buffalo only won one doubles match and one singles match.
???"The good thing that came out of [the match against Brown] was that we had chances to get double points and we were a couple points away from winning," Zaher said. "It was good for the team. We've been working hard on doubles and we know how hard it is to get a doubles point against teams. We know we can compete with teams, but we just have to finish and get it done."
???The dynamic duo of junior Kirill Kolomyts and Alexey Kalinin won Buffalo's lone doubles match against Brown's Jonathan Perlman and Nathaniel Gorham, 8-6, in the second contest. Kolomyts also had the only singles victory for the Bulls, defeating Chris Lee in a third-set supertiebreaker
???While Zaher and Bulls were happy with the outcome of their Rhode Island trip, their work has only just begun. On Feb. 7, the Bulls will hold their first home event of the spring with a matchup against Youngstown State at the Ellicott Tennis Courts.
???Zaher plans for his players to use faults that occurred this past weekend to fuel play for their first home event.
"We obviously still have a week and a half to go, so we're going to work on the things we didn't do well on this past weekend," he said.
The event begins at 10 a.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
