???As family and friends gathered to celebrate Easter early Sunday morning, the men's tennis team took to the court to conclude their conference schedule. With the April snow flurries in the rear view mirror and the sun shining, the Bulls looked to finish conference play on a high note.
???Unfortunately for Buffalo, Easter Sunday did not bring much to celebrate about.
???Heading into the morning matchup, the Bulls (7-10, 1-4 Mid-American Conference) looked to end a seven-game losing streak against the Northern Illinois Huskies (6-9, 2-2 MAC) at the Miller Tennis Center in Williamsville. While the Bulls found success in doubles play, the singles matches could not get Buffalo off the losing trail. They went on to lose to the Huskies, 5-2, pushing their losing streak to eight matches.
???"It was the second straight match we performed well in doubles play," said head coach Sherif Zaher. "We found ourselves in a situation close to winning [the match], but don't have enough to pull through in the end."
???With the conference championships on the horizon, Buffalo went into Sundays' match motivated to get their first win since Feb. 22. Going head-to-head with an evenly matched Northern Illinois team, Buffalo was confident they could get over the hump.
???Buffalo came out firing on all cylinders, earning the doubles point early in the day.
???In the first doubles match, Buffalo's tandem of sophomore Marcelo Mazzetto and junior Kirill Kolomyts defeated the Huskies' Pawel Poziomski and Jimmy Chu, 9-8 (7).
The win did not come easy for the Bulls No. 1 duo after falling behind, 5-2, in the tiebreaker. Mazzetto and Kolomyts rallied to score seven of the final nine points to secure the win and grab the opening point on the day. This marked the team-leading 15th doubles victory for the pair.
???"In my opinion they're the best doubles team in the conference," Zaher said. "Their record and number of wins shows they're the best in the conference. They've been amazing all year."
???The Bulls continued where Mazzetto and Kolomyts left off in the second doubles match. Behind the inspiring come from behind victory, the No. 2 tandem of senior Octavian Stane and freshman Kristof Custers defeated Jurica Grubisic and Shaun Stewart of Northern Illinois, 8-5.
???Buffalo's freshman duo of Alex Kalinin and Guilherme Smaniotto fell to Ross VanderPloeg and Javier Bernabe, 8-5, in the final doubles match of the day. Despite the loss, Buffalo went into singles play with the 1-0 advantage.
???Mazzetto provided the lone bright spot in singles play. He scored a 5-7, 7-6 (9), 1-0 (7), come-from-behind win over the Huskies' Jurica Grubisic. After dropping the first set, Mazzetto scored an 11-9 victory in the second-set tiebreaker and finished off Grubisic, 10-7, in the third-set super-tiebreaker.
???"He played great for us," Zaher said. "He found a way to come back from down a set, and did what it takes to win the match."
???Trying to hold onto the lead was no easy task. The resilient Huskies battled back to take the final five singles matches.
???The second singles match of the day set Northern Illinois' Poziomski against Buffalo's Kolomyts. After falling to Kolomyts in doubles play, Poziomski got his revenge with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory.
???Northern Illinois' Stewart continued the Huskies' dominance, knocking off Kalinin, 6-3, 6-4. The Bulls' Custers fell to Bernabe in the fourth match, 7-6 (7), 6-2, in the following match.
???With momentum on the Huskies side, Buffalo needed to win the final two matches to get out of their losing funk. In heartbreaking fashion however, the Bulls dropped both matches in three-sets.
???In the fifth matchup, Stane fell to Northern Illinois' Chu, 7-6 (7), 6-7 (3), 1-0 (6). Each player won tiebreaker sets before Chu captured the third-set super-tiebreaker, 10-6. In the sixth and final match, Buffalo sophomore Mitch Zenaty lost to VanderPloeg, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
???Buffalo concludes the regular season with a non-conference matchup against Oswego State on Saturday. Game time is set for 10 a.m. The Bulls will be hosting the MAC Men's Tennis Championship, starting on April 23.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
