The men's tennis team took on the Niagara University Purple Eagles on Friday night, and stampeded past them to pick up their first win of the season.
The Bulls (1-6) got off to a slow start this season, losing their first five games. Injuries have been setting the Bulls back, but according to Head Coach Sharif Zaher, the team has been able to get some players back on the court, which gave them a huge boost against Niagara (1-4) in a 6-1 victory.
"A couple of the guys on the team have been fighting injuries in the last two matches, which has hurt us a little bit," Zaher said. "It wasn't necessarily the fact that we played better today, but now we kind of understand what it takes to win...(We have) put an emphasis on learning how to get the job done. They all improved and swept their singles matches."
Starting off poorly, the Bulls' only doubles win came by way of senior Nikesh Singh Panihlia and junior Alexis Lluis defeating Steve Kopf and Collin Laffey, 8-2. The Purple Eagles' number one pairing of Marc Dickinson and Roman Silin downed sophomore Kirill Kolomytes and freshman Marcelo Mazzetto, 8-5. The Buffalo pairing of junior Octavian Stane and Juan Carlos Wynter were defeated 8-2 by Walter Garcia and Alex Abji.
Buffalo stormed back to sweep all six of their singles matches, as all but one of the six went the full three sets. Stane started the scoring for the Bulls, recording the only win in straight-sets, defeating Marc Dickinson 6-3, 6-1.
Kolomytes had the team's second win when he defeated Silin, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Following Kolomytes' victory, Panthlia gave the Bulls their third straight singles win by defeating Abji, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.
The Bulls only needed one more point to clinch the match, and turned to Mazzetto, who moved up to the number one flight for the first time this season. Mazzetto squared off against Garcia. The two battled in the fall season, with Garcia getting the victory. Marcello got his revenge as he defeated him, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, giving Buffalo their first win of the season.
The Bulls went on to beat Niagara in the next two matches to finish off their sweep of the singles matches. Lluis defeated Laffey in three sets, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, and Wynter finished out the night with his first collegiate win by defeating Nick Bolea in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
"It's great to have the monkey off your back," Zaher said. "We've come really close to winning every match...we have actually had our chances in every single [game this season]."
On Sunday morning, the Bulls fought another New York-rival: St. Bonaventure. The Bulls fell 4-3 to the Bonnies.
Buffalo picked up victories from its top three singles players. Mazzetto improved to 2-0 in first singles with a 6-0, 7-5 win. Panthlia defeated Victor Lecina, 6-2, 6-4 in second singles. In third singles, Kolomytes won in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.
The Bonnies (2-6) were able to take the bottom half of the singles draw, winning the other three matches.
St. Bonaventure won two out of the three doubles matches, earning the fourth point to win the match. The only team to win for the Bulls was the duo of Kolomytes and Wynter. This was the first time the pair played together this season. They defeated the team of Jonathan Luce and Chris Post, 8-4.
Buffalo will be back in action when they travel to Colgate on Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.
Additional reporting by Evan Nemeroff, Sports Editor.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
