Eastern Michigan
Bulls Drop Second Straight 4-3 Contest
4/14/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
BUFFALO, NY - For the second straight day the University at Buffalo women's tennis team split its six singles matches, but for the second straight day it dropped the doubles point, this time falling 4-3 to Eastern Michigan. The match was UB's final contest at home and was also the final match for Kira Golenko, who will be graduating from UB this Spring after just three years.
The Eagles claimed the double point early as they won matches at both first and second doubles. It looked as if they would go for the clean sweep, but the Bulls staged a comeback at third doubles, which was played by sophomores Tanvi Shah and Anamaria Candanoza. The duo was able to force a tiebreaker, which they won 7-4.
Singles play began with a pair of 6-0, 6-0 matches as EMU won at second singles and Buffalo won at third. Junior Tamara Markovic had little trouble defeating Ankita Bhatia after playing a long three-set match yesterday. The Bulls tied the match up at 2-2 as Shah won her contest at first singles over Nino Mebuke, 6-4, 6-2. UB then took a 3-2 lead in the contest as sophomore Miranda Podlas defeated Mariya Toncheva at fifth singles, 6-1, 7-5. Podlas was down 5-2 in the second set before winning the final five games for the win.
Eastern Michigan came back to win at fourth singles, which was the only match that went three sets, to tie the contest up at 3-3 with sixth singles the only match left to finish. Candanoza looked to be on her way to forcing a third set, but lost in a tiebreaker to Marcela Rivero.
The Bulls will conclude the regular season next Sunday as they face Northern Illinois at 2:00 pm.
Doubles:
1. Miriam Westerink/Nino Mebuke (EMU) def. Marta Stoyanova/Miranda Podlas (UB), 8-3
2. Marlya Toncheva/Georgia de'Lisle-Tarr (EMU) def. Kira Golenko/Tamara Markovic (UB), 8-1
3. Tanvi Shah/Anamaria Candanoza (UB) def. Daphne Friedrichs/Marcela Rivero (EMU), 8-7 (4)
Order of finish: 1,2,3
Singles:
1. Tanvi Shah (UB) def. Nino Mebuke (EMU), 6-4, 6-2
2. Miriam Westerink (EMU) def. Marta Stoyanova (UB), 6-0, 6-0
3. Tamara Markovic (UB) def. Ankita Bhatia (EMU), 6-0, 6-0
4. Daphne Friedrichs (EMU) def. Kira Golenko (UB), 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
5. Miranda Podlas (UB) def. Mariya Toncheva (EMU), 6-1, 7-5
6. Marcela Rivero (EMU) def. Anamaria Candanoza (UB), 6-3, 7-6 (1)
Order of finish: 2,3,1,5,4,6
