Women's tennis zaps Zips

Ending the season on the right note, the women's tennis team handed the Akron Zips a decisive 6-1 loss on Friday.

The Bulls finished the 2005 season with a record of 8-6 overall and 4-5 in the MAC. Akron fell to 6-18 overall and a dismal 0-9 in the MAC.

While a 4-5 MAC record might not give UB bragging rights, it does mark the most conference wins by the Bulls since joining the MAC in 1999.

Going into the match, head coach Kathy Twist stressed the importance of the Bulls winning the doubles point.

"We haven't played as strongly as we like for the doubles this season," said Twist. "I think the first three doubles are going to be an important match. If you win two out of three, you get a point right off the bat. It's a huge psychological lift to get that one point. We haven't done that this year, and we've had to play from behind all season."

The Bulls responded in the doubles portion of the match by sweeping all three doubles matches by a large margin. At the number one spot, the tandem of Miglena Nenova and Kristen Ortman overwhelmed their competition, as they scored an 8-1 victory. The number two team of Andreea Novaceanu and Tina Jacob also stepped up, shutting out Akron's Jennifer Ales and Laura Hemlepp, 8-0.

Having already clinched the doubles point, the number three doubles tandem relaxed as Katrin Fischer and Sabrina Carmona proved to be too much for the Zips and gave UB the doubles sweep.

After sweeping the doubles matches, the Bulls maintained focus. Buffalo defeated Akron in five of the six singles matches in straight sets, never even having to play a tiebreaker.

At number one singles, freshman standout Novaceanu started things off right for the Bulls, defeating the Zips' number one Courtney Brenkus, 6-2, 6-1. Despite Akron's Amy Sherlock's best efforts she could not best UB's number two, falling to Nenova 6-3, 6-2.

The Bulls' winning streak continued as Ortman defeated Mindy Price, although she almost gave up the first set. The junior rolled past Price, 7-5, 6-2. Winning the first three matches, along with the doubles point, clinched the day for the Bulls, although the early victories didn't stop number four Fisher from dominating her opponent, 6-3, 6-1.

"She's the hardest worker," said Coach Twist. "Kat's been doing extra work off the court on her own. She's been doing foot drills and a lot more hitting on her own. Her game has really come up this season."

Even with the series all but over, Jacob, not wanting to be left out, shut out Ales in the first set and let up only one game in the second set to give her a 6-0, 6-1 victory in the sixth singles spot.

A 6-1 victory over conference rival Akron was the perfect ending to a regular season for Twist in which the coach has seen the Bulls grow and mature as a team.

"We were second to last a year ago, and right now we're in the middle of the pack for the MAC conference," said Twist. "That's pretty good considering Marshall and Western Michigan, the two top ranked teams, are ranked in the nation. We were very close in some matches and we should have beat Miami and Bowling Green. We should have been ranked even higher then we are right now, so I'm pretty happy with that."

The Bulls are done with their regular season matches now, but they will move on to the MAC Championships after a few days of rest. Last year at the MAC Championships in Northern Illinois, the Bulls were knocked out in the first round by Toledo, by a final score of 4-2. The Bulls begin MAC Tournament competition on Wednesday, with this year's MAC Championships hosted by Ball State in Muncie, Ind.