Two players from the Buffalo men's tennis team took part in the Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association regional tournament at the Jadwin Gym in Princeton, NJ this past weekend.
Senior Nikesh Singh Panthlia and sophomore Kirill Kolomytes represented the Bulls in singles play and would later join up for doubles in the tournament, which lasted Friday through Monday.
There was no team scoring in the meet. Nine regional tournaments were played from Oct. 18 to Oct. 23, as well as this upcoming weekend. The singles finalists and the Doubles champions will advance to the National Competition in Columbus, OH that starts Nov. 1.
Early Saturday in singles play, Singh Panthlia blew past Dartmouth's Jeffrey Schechtman in the three sets. Singh Panthlia easily won the first set at 6-1. However, he dropped the second in a tie-breaker, extending the match to a third set.
Singh Panthlia breezed by Schechtman 6-2 in the third set, advancing to the next round. Panthlia could not keep his run going however, as he dropped his second round match in straight sets to Brown's Saurabh Kohli 6-1, 7-5.
Kohli came into the match as the 14th seed in the tournament, which earned him a first round bye. After defeating Singh Panthlia, he went on to win his next match against Niagara's Walter Garcia before bowing out.
Kolomytes also won his first round match when he faced Columbia's Dan Urban. Kolomytes defeated Urban in straight sets 6-3, 6-4.
Kolomytes started near the bottom of the 128-player draw, which put his second round match against the number two seed Peter Capkovic from Princeton. He was defeated 6-1, 6-1 in straight sets, thus eliminating him.
"We had a good first day in singles play," said head coach Sherif Zaher. "Winning against Ivy League schools is huge for the players and for our team."
Kolomytes and Singh Panthlia paired up for doubles play on Sunday. They were unable to upset Matt Gordon and Phil Stephens from Farleigh Dickinson, falling 8-4.
Despite the loss, Zaher liked what he saw over the weekend and would like to see more consistency from the team.
"All we need to work on is being consistent," Zaher said. "We're working on the things we left on from last season."
The Bulls have played the fall portion of their schedule with only six players on their squad. Zaher hopes to add more players for the spring schedule.
"We are a young team, in the spring we are looking to pick up two maybe even three new players, which will be good," Zaher said. "The team consists of one senior and one junior. The other four are freshmen and sophomores."
The team finishes up their fall tournament schedule next week at the Cornell Fall Invitational.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
