Bowling Green
Strong Singles Lead Bulls To Impressive 5-2 Win Over Bowling Green
4/6/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
WILLIAMSVILLE, NY - It has been quite the marathon weekend for the University at Buffalo women's tennis team, which has played nearly 10 hours of action over the last two days. Just 24 hours following a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to Western Michigan, the Bulls were back on the court Saturday afternoon and handed Bowling Green just its third loss of the season. The Bulls dominated singles play, winning five of the six contests, snapping a three-match losing skid. The Bulls improve to 11-3 on the year and 2-3 in the MAC.
Bowling Green had little trouble claiming the doubles point, winning a pair of 8-3 contests at second and third doubles and winning 8-5 at first doubles. However, UB came back in singles and looked like a totally different unit. Freshman Gopika Kapoor dispatched her opponent in just over an hour, winning at fifth singles, 6-1, 6-0. Junior Anamaria Candanoza won her match at sixth singles, 6-3, 6-1, while senior Tamara Markovic won at third singles, 6-4, 6-1, to give UB the 3-1 advantage. The score remained just that for the next hour as each of the final three matches all went into three sets.
The Falcons got back on the board with a victory at fourth singles to pull within 3-2, but UB had two of its best players still on the court. Forced to miss both matches last week and pulling out of her match yesterday due to injury, junior Tanvi Shah was brilliant this afternoon, overcoming a first-set loss to win the second set 6-4, sending the match to a third. Shah was down 4-3 in the third set when she held her serve to tie it up and then picked up a huge break, going ahead 5-4 with her serving for the match. Shah was able to put her opponent away in just under three hours, clinching the match for the Bulls.
Fellow junior Miranda Podlas was the last one remaining on the court as her match lasted three hours and 25 minutes. Podlas won the first set in a long tiebreaker, 11-9, but dropped the second set, to force a third. Podlas was able to score an early break and took the third set, 6-4, closing out one of the biggest wins of the season for the Bulls.
"This was a huge win for us," said head coach Kristen Ortman. "BG is a very good team and they made us battle for every point today. I think this win proved to us what kind of team we can be when we believe in ourselves and trust each other."
Buffalo will close out the home portion of its schedule next Saturday afternoon when it hosts Akron at 1:00 pm.
Doubles:
1. Nikki Chricosta/Emily Reuland (BG) def. Miranda Podlas/Gopika Kapoor (UB), 8-5
2. Maddy Eccleston/Katie Grubb (BG) def. Laura Fernandez/Marta Stoyanova (UB), 8-3
3. Mary Hill/Jade Johnson (BG) def. Anamaria Candanoza/Tamara Markovic (UB), 8-3
Order of Finish: 2,3,1
Singles:
1. Tanvi Shah (UB) def. Emily Reuland (BG), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
2. Miranda Podlas (UB) def. Nikki Chricosta (BG), 7-6 (11-9), 4-6, 6-4
3. Tamara Markovic (UB) def. Maddy Eccleston (BG), 6-4, 6-1
4. Katie Brozovich (BG) def. Laura Fernandez (UB), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
5. Gopika Kapoor (UB) def. Katie Grubb (BG), 6-1, 6-0
6. Anamaria Candanoza (UB) def. Mary Hill (BG), 6-3, 6-1
E Marta Stoyanova (UB) def. Drew Fillis (BG), 5-7, 6-3, 10-5
Order of Finish: 5,6,3,4,1,2
