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When it comes to tennis, I learned this weekend that I should put less stock in fall results.
This isn't a terrible surprise, but I did lead you, our devoted Men's Tennis readers, astray by pointing out that in an unscored competition in the fall that UB got the better of the Dartmouth Big Green.
The spring season, though, is the one that really matters for Tennis, and in the here-and-now Dartmouth Tennis is nationally ranked - as UB has taken care to remind us over and over again, apparently to soften the blow - and getting away with such tweets as:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p>Big Green starting against the Buffalos of Buffalo University</p>— DartmouthMen'sTennis (@DartMensTennis) <a href="https://twitter.com/DartMensTennis/status/556466187757158401">January 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
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I still can't get over this tweet. The only thing they get right is that we're from Buffalo. That's it. I quipped on Twitter that the equivalent would be us calling them the "Dartmouth Large Greenes," but even that's not true, because at least there I'm getting their name right.
Anyway, I care more about that then the 7-0 defeat at the hands of the Ivy League team. Only UB's Spaniards Pablo Alvarez and Sergia Arevalillo even managed to win a set, from the #3 and #4 slots, respectively.
Sunday against Bryant, though, went better, with the Bulls cruising to a 5-2 victory, winning the doubles point and dropping only the #1 and #3 singles slots. Sebastien Ionescu, UB's #2 against the Big Green, sat out on Sunday, leaving Noah Hajdu-Anderrson to step into the #6 slot.
UB went 3-2 in third-set singles tiebreakers while also showing off their depth in getting four points from their bottom three singles seeds and doubles players. Jonathan Hannestad and Pablo Alvarez were the only two Bulls to secure both doubles and single wins.
I should clarify before getting too deep into the season how the scoring works here: A single dual match is a best-of-seven competition, where each of six singles matches are worth a point, and a collective doubles point is awarded based on the results of three doubles matches.
In the doubles competition, each of the three pairings play a single set to six, with a single tiebreaker at 6-6, and whichever school wins two takes the doubles point. In singles, it's a simple best-of-three sets format, though it has changed a bit recently as the ITA has been concerned in recent years about the length of competitions.
Once we get to MAC play, I'll be able to speak a little more about the individual matchups, but for the bulk of the season I'll probably do just one recap at the end of each weekend, as I don't have too much knowledge about our opponents.
UB is in action next weekend, once again at an Ivy League school, though they'll face Colgate on Saturday and Monmouth on Sunday in New Haven, CT. Go Bulls!