Bulls Drop Penguins, 6-1

Sunday, February 27

W, 6-1

Youngstown State

2/27/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis

WILLIAMSVILLE, NY – The University at Buffalo men's tennis team played a home match for the first time in the 2011 season on Sunday morning scoring a 6-1 victory over Youngstown State at the Miller Tennis Center.

After starting the doubles matches slowly, the Bulls were able to sweep all three contests to take the 1-0 lead. The number three duo of Alex Kalinin and Marcelo Mazzetto, playing together for the first time this season, fell behind Rodrigo Campos and Rob Emig by a 4-2 count before rallying for the final six points to take an 8-4 win as they were the first doubles tandem to finish. The Bulls then clinched the point as George Tibil and Vusa Hove, at number two, downed Max Schermin and Zeeshan Ismail, 8-2. UB completed the sweep as number one duo Wojciech Starakiewicz and Mitch Zenaty rallied from a 3-2 deficit to down Tariq Ismail and Felipe Rosa, 8-3.

The Bulls (3-2) quickly took a 3-0 lead in the match as the number six and five matches ended almost simultaneously. At number six, Zenaty downed Emig, 6-3, 6-1. In the number five match, Kalinin picked up his first dual meet victory of the season with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Campos.

Mazzetto wrapped up the win at number four as he defeated Zeeshan Ismail, 6-1, 6-0 to give the Bulls the necessary fourth point to clinch the contest. Hove then knocked off Schermin at number three6-0, 6-1 for a 5-0 edge.

In the final match to wrap up, Starakiewicz gutted out a grueling pair of tiebreakers to down Tariq Ismail. Starakiewicz earned his fourth straight dual win in the number one slot with an 11-9 first set and 10-8 second set tiebreaker victory.

"I'm real proud of our athletes all the way through, it was a total team effort," said UB head coach Lee Nickell. "Youngstown is a very good team. That's a solid win for us."

The Bulls are off for the next two weeks before traveling to Ithaca to face Cornell on Sunday, March 12.

Buffalo 6, Youngstown State 1

Doubles

1 Wojciech Starakiewicz/Mitch Zenaty (UB) d. Tariq Ismail/Felipe Rosa (YSU), 8-3

2 George Tibil/Vusa Hove (UB) d. Max Schermin/Zeeshan Ismail (YSU), 8-2

3 Alex Kalinin/Marcelo Mazzetto (UB) d. Rodrigo Campos/Rob Emig (YSU), 8-4

Order of finish: 3, 2, 1

Singles

1 Wojceich Starakiewicz (UB) d. Tariq Ismail (YSU), 7-6 (9), 7-6 (8)

2 Felipe Rosa (YSU) d. George Tibil (UB), 5-7, 3-4 ret.

3 Vusa Hove (UB) d. Max Schermin (YSU), 6-0, 6-1

4 Marcelo Mazzetto (UB) d. Zeeshan Ismail (YSU), 6-1, 6-0