"Love, set and match for Bulls at ITA Regionals"

Before you can be the best, you have to beat the best.

The ITA Regional tournament at Dartmouth hosted 128 of the top tennis players throughout the Northeast over the weekend.

UB sent three representatives to the event, with junior Mike Rockman representing the Bulls in singles while the formidable pair of Yules Hadisubroto and Nikesh Singh Panthlia took on the doubles competition.

"We had a great weekend," said Nick Zieziula, assistant head coach. "We played well against the best from every team."

Rockman started strong, dominating Stony Brook's Nihal Advani in straight sets. His 6-4, 6-4 first round win allowed the Bull to charge into the second round, playing against seeded opponents.

The 6-foot-4-inch Toronto native faced off against the 25th seed, Andrew Lieu out of Princeton, early Saturday morning. A 6-4, 7-5 victory gave UB its first-ever second round win at the ITA.

"Rockman had a great second round," Zieziula said. "It was a tough match because it was a situation where their coach was very familiar with Rockman's game style and he was trying to talk his kid all the way through that match. He just couldn't do it. Rockman was just too tough."

Pennsylvania's Mikhail Bekker proved why he was the sixth seed, and eliminated Rockman 6-2, 6-2. While Bekker did win in straight sets, the match was much closer than the score shows.

"Mike fought with him for a while," Zieziula said. "It was a good match."

UB's doubles also played well. Singh Panthlia and Hadisubroto handled the competition, defeating Fairfield's Jonathan Fernando and Stephen Kouri 8-2.

"Our doubles team played Fairfield in the first round and they just dominated that match," Zieziula said. "It was 8-2 and Fairfield just could not keep up with Nikesh and Yules. That's the first time we've ever had a doubles team come out and dominate like that in the first round. They were beasts."

In the second round however, Penn State's sixth-seed tandem of Adam Slagter and Mark Barry proved too much for the Bulls, taking the match 8-4.

The tennis team wraps up its fall season at the Cornell Invitational this weekend.