Not a whole lot to say about the Men's Tennis weekend, and that's a good thing, because the Bulls simply went out and claimed two easy wins, beating Niagara 6-1 on Friday and Youngstown State 5-2 yesterday. Both matches came at the Miller Tennis Center in Williamsville.
The win over the Purple Eagles led to one of the best UB stats you'll ever see; since 1940, the Bulls are 99-3-1 all-time in tennis matches against Niagara. That's kind of embarrassing, but it's also really, really awesome. 99-3-1!
Even better, this year's win gave Coach Nickell a chance to mix up his lineup. Pablo Alvarez, Sergio Arevalillo, and Noah Hajdu-Andersson sat out the singles lineup, and the two Spaniards didn't compete at all. Johnathan Hannestad moved up to #3 singles, and was the lone Bull to fall on the day, losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, and Amar Hromic, Akhil Mehta, and Tony Miller all made their way into to singles lineup. UB also swept the doubles point.
Against Youngstown State the Bulls were nearly equally successful, albeit with a near-full-strength lineup, topping the Penguins 5-2. Buffalo got a quick start thanks to the doubles point, and won the match thanks to their depth; all four singles points came from the #3 through #6 spots in the lineup. In particular, at #3 and #4 Hannestad and Hromic weathered comeback attempts to win in three sets.
Speaking to ubbulls.com, Coach Nickell expressed his desire for a "dominant" team, wary of the challenges ahead in the schedule. Both Coach Nails and I have been saying this is the best team UB's ever had, and he's been adamant that it's MAC Championship or bust this season after the team has advanced to the conference final four of the last five years.
Still, I'm excited to hear Coach looking for more, because I'm pretty happy with where this team is at right now: Without Pablo Alvarez, they put together a pair of strong wins, have now won three in a row, and are 7-3 on the year. It's all good.
UB heads to New Jersey next weekend for a pair of matches in Princeton, one against the host Tigers and one against the Monmouth Blue Hawks.
Go Bulls!
