The Bulls looked to continue their climb towards the top of the tennis mountain at the Dartmouth Invitational, but in order to do that they needed a strong showing from the whole team.
Nick Ziezula, Mark Kennedy and Randy Rocchio won their early matches, but Mike Rockman's undefeated record was ruined with a loss. Team star Rocchio went down with an elbow injury, and will be out for an undetermined length of time.
Zieziula made a statement early on, defeating John Houghton of Army 1-6, 6-4, 10-8. He improved his individual record to 2-2 on the season.
When it looked as if Buffalo was on a roll, undefeated Mike Rockman (3-1) met his match, losing to Sele Salas. He lost by scores of 6-2, 1-6, and 10-4.
The Bulls suffered a different kind of loss on the court when Randy Rocchio went down with an elbow injury. It was a reoccurring injury from last year.
"Right off the bat it started hurting, I noticed a big difference; it was hard to hold the racket. The other guys stepped up," said Rocchio.
The team doctor will examine Rocchio later this week, although it is undetermined as to how long he will be out, as he and the entire team will find out more after he talks to the team doctors. Rocchio is sure that it is a nerve problem, and that it is not going to heal to 100 percent any time soon.
Recent doubles partner to Randy Rocchio and newcomer to the team Matt Kennedy had a good weekend up until Rocchio went down with the injury. Kennedy and Rocchio won their doubles match 8-4 against Dartmouth's McGaughey and Maiers.
"It hurts the team to lose someone that high up in the lineup, especially me because he was my doubles partner, but we will have to adjust and play our game," said Kennedy.
Head coach Russ Crispell is unsure who will replace Rocchio in the lineup, but he will have to make a decision soon.
Crispell said that the Bulls are going to have to cope with the loss of Rocchio by putting different combinations of doubles teams together.
"We're experimenting with doubles, mixing it up with teams, seeing what chemistry works and what doesn't," said Crispell.
It's not every day a team loses someone as valuable as Randy Rocchio, but the Bulls will have to press on. They have had strong play this year from many different players, such as Mike Rockman, who has gone undefeated up until this tournament. Nick Zieziula has been playing as his regular self, and Matt Kennedy has been a pleasant addition to the team.
"This game is about mental toughness, the guys are working extremely hard, putting in nine hours of tennis, four back to back matches without a break," said Crispell of his players. I think the team is headed in the right direction, I think we played pretty well. We are on the right track; we will get to where we want to be. We survived a hurricane, we can survive this setback," Crispell continued.
Buffalo will next play at the Brown Invitational, which takes place Sept. 23-26.
