Up and down weekend for Bulls tennis

Men's Tennis

The men's tennis team's active style of play has earned them five-straight victories and a perfect record at home. The Bulls approached Sunday's match against the nationally ranked Bearcats with hopes of continuing their winning streak.
Buffalo (9-5, 2-0 Mid-American Conference) played its final home game on Easter Sunday against a strong Binghamton team (18-1). The Bearcats snapped the Bulls' home streak with a 5-2 win.
Binghamton clinched the doubles point to start the day. Buffalo's lone doubles win came from the No. 2 duo of sophomore Wojciech Starakiewicz and freshman George Tibil in an 8-4 victory against Moshe Levy and Alexandre Haggai.
However, there wasn't much the Bulls could cheer about, as they were nearly swept in the singles. By the time Buffalo recorded a win in singles play, the Bearcats had already earned the victory.
The Bulls struggled to sneak anything past the Bearcats as the majority of their net charges and slams were countered and returned.
"Today's performance was a little bit deflated," said assistant coach Jordie Kindervater. "We found a way to compete [at the net]… unfortunately we were against a tough team today and we didn't quite have that edge we needed to defeat a nationally ranked opponent."
The first three matches were decided in quick succession. In the No. 3 spot, senior Kiril Kolomyts fell in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, to mark his final game at the University Tennis Center.
At the No. 4 spot, Binghamton's Arnav Jain defeated Tibil, 6-3, 6-4. Levy then sealed junior Marcelo Mazzetto's fate, with a 6-1, 6-2 win.
The Bearcats' last win of the afternoon came from Sven Vloedgraven, who defeated Starakiewicz in the No. 1 spot, 6-1, 6-2.
With the win, the Bearcats now lead the all-time record against the Bulls, 12-3. Binghamton also extended its winning streak to 13 matches, breaking the school record that was set in the 2004-2005 season.
Freshman Vusa Hove beat Binghamton's Alexandre Haggai at the No.5 spot, despite suffering from apparent cramps. Hove won the thriller in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (11-9). Hove now holds a 9-1 record at singles.
"[Hove] competes extremely hard every time out there," Kindervater said. "He's got a lot of will and that's something that helps him rise to the top."
Sophomore Alex Kalinin ended the afternoon with a hard-earned 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, victory over Binghamton's Bastian Bornkesse in the No. 6 spot.
"We're just going to have to take a little bit of time," Kindervater said. "We [have] to get the guys to recover from this and take some things from this match that [the team] could get better at. Unfortunately, we let a chance get away from us, but we're not going to let that happen again."
The Bulls travel to Illinois for two inter-conference matches next weekend as they take on Chicago State on Saturday at 3 p.m., and Northern Illinois on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Women's Tennis

For the first time since Feb. 27, the women's tennis team played in familiar surroundings this past weekend after a three-match road trip that ranged from Puerto Rico to Rhode Island. The Bulls were treated to a weekend of outdoor matches as the sun shone at the University Tennis Courts. While the rays brought light to the Bulls on Friday, clouds reigned over Buffalo's head on Saturday.
Buffalo (5-6, 1-2 Mid-American Conference) snapped a three-match losing streak on Friday after overcoming the Eastern Michigan Eagles (6-9, 0-2 MAC), 5-2.
The Bulls took an early lead after winning two out of three doubles matches to clinch the doubles point. Playing out of the No. 3 position, senior Diana Toia and junior Diana Popescu overpowered Marcela Rivero and Celine Donnet, 8-2. Senior Denise Harijanto and junior Aleksandra Petrova wrapped up the point in first doubles with an 8-3 victory over Julia Breuss and Miriam Westernik.
The match turned to singles play where Harijanto continued to torment a visibly frustrated Breuss. As she did in doubles play, Harijanto made quick work of Breuss, defeating her in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.
Despite her success, Harijanto wasn't excited about her performance.
"I wasn't playing 100 percent of my game," Harijanto said. "It wasn't a good day, but I still got the job done and I think I should be proud of that."
The Buffalo lead grew to 3-0 after the No. 6 matchup as freshman Tamara Markovic was victorious over Donnet, 6-2, 6-2. Another freshman, Kira Golenko, earned the match-clinching point for the Bulls at fifth singles as she upended Rivero, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Petrova picked up the last win of the day for Buffalo in the No. 3 position after beating Xu Chang in three sets, 5-7, 6-0, 6-1.
Bulls' head coach Kathy Twist acknowledged that her team's conditioning was the difference in this match.
"They grinded it out," Twist said. "They're in better shape than Eastern Michigan. They worked harder, came to play, and I think they wore them down a little bit."
Hoping to carry over Friday's momentum, the Bulls aimed to capture their first conference win against the Rockets of Toledo (9-4, 2-1 MAC) on Saturday afternoon, but a new day brought new results as Buffalo struggled with Toledo before falling, 4-3.
Popescu and Toia opened the match with a doubles win out of the No. 3 doubles spot by defeating Melissa Reynolds and Silvia Carvajal, 8-1. That was the only doubles win for the Bulls, however, as Toledo's Nadia Zoubareva and Ashley Frey defeated senior Anna Subenkova and Golenko, 8-4 at second doubles. Rockets seniors Martina Wodzinski and Maha Guirguis followed suit by edging out Buffalo's No. 1 duo, Harijanto and Petrova, 8-6, to clinch the doubles point.
Down 1-0, the Bulls found a sudden surge to battle back in singles play.
At sixth singles, Markovic whitewashed Carvajal in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0, while Petrova also won in straight sets over Ashley Frey, 6-4, 6-0, in the No. 3 position.
Buffalo's fortune would soon fade however as the momentum turned in Toledo's favor after Rashell Washington defeated Golkenko at fifth singles, 6-2, 7-5. Guirguis earned a hard fought victory over Popescu, 6-3, 7-5 in the No. 2 matchup to give Toldeo a 3-2 lead.
The Bulls bounced back behind Harijanto, who rebounded from the earlier doubles loss to defeat Wodzinski in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, to tie the match at three.
With both teams surrounding the court to cheer on their teammates, the outcome of the back and forth match was decided in the No. 4 contest between Zoubareva and Toia. Despite taking the first set, Zoubareva proved to be too much for Toia to handle as she rebounded in the second set and captured the set and match.
Even in defeat, Twist was pleased with what she saw from her team.
"The intensity was much better than yesterday," Twist said. "We knew Toledo always gives us a good fight so we had to be up for that. It came down to the wire with our number four, but I'm very pleased with the results today."
Next up for the Bulls is a road trip to Northern Illinois to face the Huskies on Saturday. Start time is scheduled for 1 p.m.

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