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Friday, March 29, 2024
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Mazzetto Paces Bulls in Win

The men's tennis team hasn't had an easy season thus far. However, a home meet proved to be exactly what it needed.

Last Sunday, the Bulls (3-2) went up against Youngstown State (2-3) and overwhelmed their opponents. Buffalo left Miller Tennis Center in Williamsville with a 6-1 win. However, the dominating win wasn't without some tense moments.

Junior Wojciech Starackiewicz had another huge day on the courts. First, he teamed up with senior Mitch Zenaty to face off against Youngstown State's Tariq Ismail and Felipe Rosa in a doubles match. After falling to a 3-2 deficit, Starakiewicz and Zenaty rallied to defeat their opponents, 8-3.

Starakiewicz once again went up against Ismail in the final singles match of the meet. The thriller saw the competitors go through two grueling tiebreaker sets. Starakiewicz gave it his all and won both sets, 7-6 (9), 7-6 (8).

Head coach Lee Nickell was impressed about Starakiewicz's fourth straight dual win.

"Wojciech is doing a great job, but it's what we expect," Nickell said. "We expect him to be dominant. He's just playing his type of game and doing exactly what he needs to do to win."

Sophomore Vusa Hove gave another pair of solid performances against the Penguins. Hove and sophomore George Tibil combined their talents to defeat Max Schermin and Zeeshan Ismail, 8-2. Schermin later lost again to Hove in a 6-0, 6-1 blowout.

Hove was in good spirits after the match.

"[Matches] like those are always good for confidence," Hove said. "I feel like going into the next match… I will do very well and play hard."

Senior Marcelo Mazzetto also found success after losing four consecutive matches. Mazzetto teamed up with junior Alex Kalinin to earn an 8-4 victory over the Penguins pairing of Rodrigo Campos and Rob Emig. Mazzetto then outplayed Zeeshan Ismail en route to a 6-1, 6-0 victory.

Nickell considered Mazzetto's performances one of the day's standouts.

"Mazzetto has had a rough spring," Nickell said. "He's been doing a lot of hard work in practice and it showed [last Sunday]."

Kalinin and Zenaty also added to the Bulls' eight wins with their victories in singles competition. Zenaty beat Emig, 6-3, 6-1, while Kalinin beat Campos again by a score of 6-2, 6-0.

Nickell considered Buffalo's win a team effort despite the individual accomplishments.

"It was a solid win for us against a good team," Nickell said. "It was important enough to go out there and compete, considering that we haven't had many matches [this season]."

Buffalo can't rest on its victory, as it will face a very skilled Cornell (12-3) team in its next meet. The Bulls are confident about their chances of pulling off an upset.

"We obviously always need fine-tuning and we're always trying to get better," Nickell said. "As long as we keep getting things together, we're a really tough team to beat."

The dual meet is scheduled for March 12, with first serve at 2 p.m.

E-mail: sports@ubspectrum.com


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