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A busy and stressful Sunday kept me away from the computer, so for the first time this year I've got to roll a whole day together. I don't like doing it, and I especially don't like being a full 24 hours behind on some results.
John and I have also moved our Olympic Rundown podcast to Tuesday night this week. You can still expect it at 10:00 PM.
Women's Soccer
L, 1-2, at Bowling Green
The inconsistency continues for this team, which is now 2-2 in the MAC after a strong pair of games against Kent State and Eastern Michigan. Against Bowling Green yesterday UB gave up the first goal early in the second half. Despite roaring back with 17 shots, five corner kicks, and an 80th-minute goal from Carissima Cutrona in the second half, UB lost when a shot from Bowling Green's Erica Hubert bounced over Laura Dougall in the final minute. Without video I'm not sure how that happens but that's what the scoresheet says.
Buffalo has been strong in the second half of both conference losses, and seem to play with a different intensity when trailing, but given how much they controlled the second half, they're still struggling on offense to put shots on goal and convert chances. Of five losses in 12 matches this year, I think only St. Joseph's and West Virginia were better teams than UB.
Cutrona's goal was her second of the season. She joins Julia Benati as the only Bulls with multiple so far.
Rowing
In a small competition, their first of the year, against only Canisius and D'Youville, UB seemed more focused on just getting in the water and developing chemistry within the boats than winning the race. As usual, there were only a few events: a Varsity 8 and a Varsity 4 race.
UB had two eights finish the course in 19:33 and 20:02, well behind Canisius' 18:38. In the fours, UB's three boats finished in 22:14, 23:00 (ish), and 24:06, with the 'A' boat winning the race. Against who else, I don't know.
Men's Tennis
It's not the full group that's in action, but the three Bulls who made the trip to Tulsa for the ITA All-American Championships have found some solid results in the early going.
In a massive field that has not only a qualifying draw, but a pre-qualifying draw, this weekend we saw Sergio Arevalillo and Amar Hromic work from the very beginning, while Pablo Alvarez waited to today to start his competition in the qualifying. I am nearly sure Arevalillo and Hromic also begin doubles play today.
Over the weekend, both Sergio and Amar each won their first match before dropping their second. Hromic in particular showed well, beating an Ohio State freshman who was a five-star recruit and undefeated in high school before falling the next round on a third-set tiebreaker. Sergio won his first match in straight sets before falling to a Florida freshman who was ranked top ten in the Southeast as a recruit.
Pablo's match today is against Jose Salazar of Arkansas, who has already had to fight out of the prequalifying draw and only advanced to face the UB senior after winning a match already today. The doubles draw isn't yet posted, and there's no live updates of any sort from the ITA or Tulsa, so we just have to wait for Coach Nickell to share with us on Twitter.
Swimming and Diving
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Officially announcing my verbal commitment to the University at Buffalo <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoBulls?src=hash">#GoBulls</a></p>— Anna Vitolins (@anna_vitolinss) <a href="https://twitter.com/anna_vitolinss/status/650818317431742465">October 4, 2015</a></blockquote>
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We got news yesterday of a commit for Women's Swimming and Diving. Anna Vitolins is out of the Schenectady, NY area and the generally strong Niskayuna High School team with experience swimming everything but backstrokes, although she's done some IMs as well.
Most of her times are just slower than the bottom of UB's depth chart, but there's another year of high school for her to improve. She does have a PR in the 100 breaststroke that would be faster than anyone else at UB, so if nothing else that's a nice incoming boon.