The men's tennis team may be young, but it is also confident.
The team believes it has a shot at defeating more seasoned opponents this season, and even has a spring Mid-American Conference championship in its sights.
This fall has done nothing but bolster this belief.
The inexperienced Bulls showed veteran poise throughout an impressive fall season, and they finished it up with another solid weekend, this time at the Cornell Invitational Tennis Tournament, coming away with championships in both the A and B flights in their final event of the fall season.
Buffalo served up two winners in Ithaca on Sunday, as freshman Damien David took the A flight title and sophomore Travis Zappia took the B flight title.
While there were many positives at Cornell, there were also several negatives.
Neither upstart freshman Ivan Vereshchaga nor senior Alex Kalinin (last year's team MVP) would fare quite as well, as neither made it out of the second round. And after winning his opening round match on Friday, senior star Wojciech Starakiewicz was forced to withdraw due to injury.
Vereshchaga and Kalinin both won their first match of the consolation round, but lost again in the second round.
Buffalo had a disappointing effort in doubles, as the team of Starakiewicz and Zappia lost to Cornell's Evan McElwain and Alex Sidney. David and Vereshchaga also lost to Cornell's Luu and Sam Fleck. Both teams lost in the first round of A flight doubles competition. The Bulls' Kalinin and sophomore Yevgeniy Jason Shkodnik would lose in the first round flight B to the duo of Alex Aleman and Rich Robbie of Duquesne.
Shkodnik made it to the quarterfinal in the singles B flight, but lost to Kyle Berman of Cornell, 6-0, 6-4.
David and Zappia, however, both made it to the singles finals on Sunday after participating in consecutive three-set matches. David competed in an epic three-set match on Sunday against Luu.
David said this match was the most challenging of his weekend, but he was able to pull out a win, 6-7, 6-1, and 6-2. The freshman finished the 2011 fall season with 11 wins, four coming this weekend.
"The most difficult part of the weekend for me was physically," David said. "We played a lot of [tiring] three set matches. All the results are a team effort, [and] everything comes from training."
Zappia's B flight championship wouldn't be as grinding, but would prove to be just as important nonetheless. He defeated Cornell's Kyle Berman, 6-2 and 6-1, for the title.
"This was the first decent size tournament that I have won in singles, and it felt amazing," Zappia said. "The preparation leading up to this tournament was crucial. Our coaches let us have the weekend before the tournament off, so that we could rest up and have a good preparation week on the court and in the weight room leading up to the matches."
Head coach Lee Nickell was pleased with his team this weekend. The entire fall season has been a preparation for the duals matches in the spring.
The spring season starts in January.
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Photo: Paul Hokanson / UB Athletics
