Playing on familiar courts might have factored into the positive results posted by the UB men's tennis team at The Big Green Invite, hosted by Dartmouth over the weekend.
The Bulls made the most out of their final tournament of the fall in what was their second trip to New Hampshire this season.
The tournament format was another non-scoring event, like the Volkl Shootout held in September. UB players were entered into a field with 11 teams from the Northeast competing.
"When you're playing against the Ivy League schools you're playing against the best tennis in the Northeast, hands down," said head coach Russ Crispell. "The fact that we've played at Brown and Dartmouth, what that does is it allows our players to be comfortable playing at a level that they aren't intimidated by. Harvard is one of the top teams in the country. As an example of our success this weekend my doubles team knocked off Harvard's doubles team. Mike Rockman knocked off a Harvard kid in the quarterfinals."
Rockman and teammates Nick Zieziula and Matt Kennedy had dominant performances over the weekend.
Rockman opened singles play in the "A" bracket with a 6-2, 6-2 victory in his match against Manhattan's Zoltan Bus. After defeating Gabe Adams of Rutgers in straight sets, Rockman came a set from behind to beat Harvard's Scott Denenberg. David Webb, the tournament's top seed from host school Dartmouth would end Rockman's bid for a title however, with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over the UB sophomore.
In doubles play Rockman would team with Princeton's Jonathan Leslie in the "B" bracket.
"Having never played with each other before the two of them right from the start just clicked," said Crispell. "That's the key for doubles, to have that chemistry is critical. We were trying to get that kid to transfer. We were talking about SATs. I said 'what did it take to get into Princeton?' He said, 'Well I'm a pretty good tennis player but having a 1500 on the SATs didn't hurt either.'"
The pair scored an opening round victory over a New Hampshire duo. Leslie and Rockman then went on to knock off two Dartmouth pairs by scores of 8-3 and 8-5 to capture the doubles title.
After dropping his opening match, UB's Zieziula found himself entered into the backdraw of "A" singles.
"Nick is filling some pretty big shoes with the loss of Rocchio. Playing at number one is difficult so Nick has to make some adjustments on his game to play that next step up," said Crispell. "It's just a process that he has to take to learn how to advance to the next level."
The pain of defeat would not set in for Zieziula who had to rally from a set down in order to force a tiebreaker against Assumption's Mike Goldman. Zieziula eventually went on to grind out a 13-11 win in the match.
Playing in the "B" bracket, Kennedy like Zieziula lost his opening match and was forced into the backdraw. Kennedy went on to defeat Dartmouth's David Steinberg 2-6, 6-3, 12-10.
Zieziula and Kennedy went 1-1 in their matches as UB's entry in the "A" doubles bracket. The duo soundly defeated Harvard's Caleb Gardner and Jordan Bohnen 8-2. Fortunes for the duo were overturned, however, as Dartmouth's team of Mark Brodie and Jeff Schechtman was on the winning end of an 8-2 match over the two UB players.
The Bulls will hibernate for the winter and won't be seen in action for a while. They open up the 2005 spring campaign on Jan. 21 against Manhattan College at Columbia University. The spring campaign for the men will also feature matches against Brown University and Boston College.
