It was an up and down weekend for the men's tennis team, as it took to the road on Saturday to face Princeton (7-3) and then returned home on Sunday for a match with the New Jersey Institute of Technology (9-3) at the Miller Tennis Center.
With little time to rest before playing NJIT on Sunday, the Bulls came ready to play. They defeated NJIT, 5-2.
After winning three straight matches, the Bulls (6-3) were overmatched against their Ivy League opponent. Princeton (6-3) swept the Bulls, 7-0, ending their three-match winning streak.
Sophomore Damien David and freshman Akhil Mehta could not keep up with Princeton duo Matija Pecotic and Zack McCourt, losing 8-1. The No. 2 doubles team of senior Vusa Hove and sophomore Sebastian Ionescu was also defeated, 8-1, by its opponents and freshman Sergio Arevalillo and freshman Ashwin Sharma dropped their match, 8-3.
"We came out very flat in doubles and that just set a bad tone to start with," said head coach Lee Nickell. "When we finally woke up in singles, it was just a little too late."
In singles, David and Ionescu were able to force super-tiebreakers in their third sets but couldn't capture the point, losing 10-8 and 11-9, respectively.
Although the Bulls couldn't upset the highly touted Princeton team, Nickell said they are gaining valuable experience by playing these skilled Ivy League opponents.
"We have to play these Ivy League teams," said Nickell. "If I scheduled against only teams in the area, we would have no test and going into the MAC, we would not know where we fit."
NJIT hadn't lost the doubles point once all season, but the Bulls started off strong by winning the doubles point easily; the team rode the fast start into a 5-2 victory.
David and Meta knocked off the Highlanders duo of Erik Arthursson and Petr Rousar, 8-5, to pace the Bulls' success in doubles play.
"You wouldn't believe the difference in energy between Princeton and NJIT," Nickell said. "We were jumping up and down, getting crazy against NJIT, and in Princeton, it felt like our dog died."
Junior Jason Shkodnik and Hove also won their doubles match, 8-5.
The Bulls gained four points from David, Ionsecu, Mehta and freshman Pablo Alvarez in singles play.
All four clinched their victories in the first two sets and Nickell was very pleased with their performances.
"All our players were tired, but the team showed a will to compete and came out firing," Nickell said.
The Bulls will need to start fast in the opening matches in order to compete in their difficult upcoming schedule. Nickell is confident the Bulls can beat their next Ivy League opponent of the season if they come out "firing on all cylinders" next weekend.
The team travels to Brown (5-5) on Saturday for a 1 p.m. start.
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Photo: Courtesy of UB Athletics
