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Men's tennis weekly release
2/27/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Bulls Swept on Ivy Weekend Trip
The University at Buffalo men's tennis team had a rough weekend excursion as they took on Ivy League foes Penn and Princeton. The Bulls dropped a 4-3 decision to the Quakers and followed with a 5-2 loss to the Tigers. UB is now 1-6 overall as the team regroups and prepares for its Spring Break matches.
Hove, Starakiewicz Score Pair of Singles Wins
Vusa Hove and Wojciech Starakiewicz won both of their singles matches over the weekend. Hove, playing at second singles defeated Penn's Nikola Kocovic, 6-4, 6-4, and Princeton's Matt Spindler in a super-tiebreaker, 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 (10-3). Hove, who moved up to the number two slot last week improved to 10-4 for the season. Starakiewicz needed tiebreakers in the second and third sets to record a victory over Penn's Rob Wong. After dropping the first set to Wong, 6-4, Starakiewicz rebounded with a 7-2 win in the second set tiebreaker and then closed out the match with a 10-7 win in the third-set super-tiebreaker. On Sunday, Starakiewicz downed Matt Siow of Princeton, 6-1, 6-2, to improve his singles record to 9-8 for the season.
David Posts Win Number 15
Freshman Damien David, playing first singles, went 1-1 on the weekend but secured his team-leading 15th win of the season. On Saturday, David scored a 7-5, 6-3 win over Penn's Ivan Turudic. Following Sunday's loss to Matija Pecotic of Princeton, ranked 59th in the ITA, David is 4-3 in dual meet play.
A Nickell's Worth
Although the Bulls have started the dual meet season slowly, head coach Lee Nickell remains optimistic on the remainder of the schedule. "When I made the schedule I knew that we were facing teams at a level this program isn't used to," said Nickell. "We are certainly not happy to be 1-6 at this time but I will say that we are very good up top and know where we need to get better. Today's match showed that we are making improvements and if we continue on this same path we will be ready to compete in the MAC."
Bulls to Play Spring Matches in Palmetto State
The Bulls next embark on their Spring Break trip to South Carolina. UB will face South Carolina State on March 10 and The Citadel on March 12. Both matches are slated to begin at 1:00 pm. Members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, South Carolina State is 6-1 this season in dual play, having defeated Elon on Saturday, 4-3. The Citadel, members of the Southern Conference, are 2-2 with both wins coming against non-Division I competition. The Bulldogs are scheduled for seven matches before hosting the Bulls on March 12.
