Early momentum leads to win

The women's tennis team has enjoyed comfortable victories in seven of its first eight matches this season.

The Bulls (8-1) cruised to their seventh consecutive victory, defeating ASA (2-1), 5-2, Saturday afternoon at the Miller Tennis Center in Williamsville.

In a mostly tame match, there was one matchup that featured some excitement.

Senior Laura Fernandez earned the team's final victory of the day over Dayana Agasieva. Fernandez split her first two sets, 6-2 and 1-6, and bounced back to win the third and final set, 6-3.

"I personally think I battled," Fernandez said. "I battled hard today. Winning that first set was crucial. I knew beforehand [Agasieva] was a good player, so winning the first set easily gave me confidence and calmed me down, even though I lost the second set."

Buffalo earned the doubles point to start the match and never trailed.

"Doubles was huge," said head coach Kristen Maines. "We came out strong. I think it flustered the other team a little bit. To clinch that doubles point, especially for the freshmen to clinch [the doubles victory], going into singles having that momentum was tremendous."

Those freshmen were Margarita Kotok and Laura Holterbosch. The duo solidified the point for UB by defeating Kyla Klier and Danielle Winter, 8-6, at third doubles. Seniors Tanvi Shah and Miranda Podlas also earned a doubles victory for UB, downing Natallia Vavulina and Daniela Vanko, 8-5.

Podlas was forced to sit out of singles play due to an injury she sustained earlier in doubles. This forced Maines to alter her lineup. The injury did not affect the team's success, though, as Buffalo went on to win four out of six singles matches.

"I think today's matches went really well," Podlas said. "We started off strong in doubles, which really helped. [ASA] came at us hard, though. They hit a hard ball, but if we kept consistent and kept our game style, we knew we would come through in the end. Everyone stepped up today."

Buffalo senior Anamaria Canadanoza swept Kyla Klier at fourth singles, winning both sets 6-3. During the match, a referee was forced to intervene due to trash talking between the two athletes.

Senior Marta Stoyanova and Kotok each swept their opponents as well. Stoyanova defeated Winter, 6-2 and 6-3, while Kotok defeated Daniela Vanko, 6-1 and 7-5. Kotok's victory was the fourth and game-sealing victory for the Bulls.

The Bulls travel to Florida next week to face Hillsdale (9-9, 8-6 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) Saturday and Florida Atlantic (4-6, 0-1 Conference USA) Sunday. It will be the first time this season the Bulls will compete in an outdoor environment.

"That's why we go down on spring training, to get that outdoor tennis, to get used to the elements," Maines said. "The sun, the wind - it's tough and a whole different environment, but that's why we go, to prepare for the [Mid-American Conference], when we do have to play some matches outside."

The Bulls will begin conference play after next weekend, as they host Eastern Michigan (7-6, 2-1 MAC) March 21.

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