Men's Tennis
Nothing could stop the men's tennis team on Friday night. Whether it was the late February snowstorm or a flock of Purple Eagles, the Bulls were determined to leave the Miller Tennis Center with a win over their cross-town rival.
While the rest of the city of Buffalo was plowing their driveways clear of snow, the Bulls (3-2) plowed their way through Niagara (2-5), winning 7-0.
'Right now we are getting in to the meat of our season, and getting this win against Niagara is vital for our confidence for our trip down [to Florida],' said head coach Lee Nickell. 'Having teams like [Niagara], all they do is give us tough tests of what we will eventually see in the [Mid-American Conference].'
Buffalo started off the night with 8-3 victories in both the No. 2 and No. 3 positions in doubles competition. Junior Marcelo Mazzetto and freshman George Tibil joined together to win the No. 2 match, while the duo of junior Mitch Zenaty and freshman Vusa Hove was also victorious.
The Bulls received a scare in the No. 1 doubles match as senior Kirill Kolomyts and sophomore Wojciech Starakiewicz faced a 6-3 deficit against the Purple Eagles' freshman tandem of Matthew Kane and Jeremy Quiroz. But the Bulls battled back to win five-straight games to complete the doubles sweep with an 8-6 win.
Behind the strong efforts in doubles play, Buffalo continued to take care of business in singles matches.
Ranked No. 6 in the Northeast, Starakiewicz started off where he had left off in earlier in the meet. Meeting Quiroz for the second time on the afternoon, Starakiewicz scored six-straight to take the first set against Niagara's youngster. Starakiewicz needed a to rally after he fell behind in the second set, but was able to force a tiebreaker and defeat Quiroz, 6-0, 7-6 (3).
Niagara continued to show resilience in the No. 3 spot as Kolomyts met another freshman in Brandon Gallegos.
After splitting opening sets, Kolomyts eventually upended Gallegos in a back and forth rally during the super-tiebreaker to keep Niagara off the board. Down 4-2 early in the tiebreak, Kolomyts rattled off eight straight points to clinch the tiebreak, 10-4 and win the match, 5-7. 6-2, 1-0 (10-4).
We had some tight matches at the top,' Nickell said. 'We were pushed but got through.'
The rest of the matches went as planned for the Bulls as freshman George Tibil downed Niagara's Joseph Zelic 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 4 position. Sophomore Alex Kalinin won his team-leading 10th singles match of the year in a 6-3, 6-2 victory over David-Lemieux-Sarrasin while Hove completed the sweep over Jordan Tedesco-Blair, 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 6 match.
Buffalo has a week off to prepare until they hit the road for a spring break trip at 2009 Sun Belt Tournament runner-up, Florida Atlantic, on Sunday. Buffalo will also meet with Troy and Southern Illinois before returning home in mid-March.
Women's Tennis
