Sometimes high expectations are met with similar results. Sometimes expectations bury a team under their weight.
The women's tennis team, coming off of back-to-back second place finishes in the Mid-American Conference tournament the past two seasons, have slipped into mediocrity as of late. The Bulls have lost three matches in a row, and seven matches this season, after having only lost six matches total over the past two years.
Buffalo lost two matches over the weekend, losing a hard-fought match to Bowling Green 4-3, before the two-time defending MAC champion Western Michigan Broncos wiped the floor with the Bulls, 6-1. Buffalo has fallen to the Broncos in each of the last two MAC championships, and have not beaten them since joining the MAC in 2000.
In the Friday match against Bowling Green (14-2, 3-2 MAC), the Falcons and Bulls split the six singles matches. Yet Bowling Green won due to the doubles-point, which it had captured earlier in the match.
The day started right for Buffalo as sophomore Denise Harijanto and freshman Diana Popescu won in first-doubles. The duo defeated the Bowling Green's Kelsey Jakupcin and Christina Chiricosta, 9-7. Harijanto and Popescu improved their record to 4-0 when paired together.
Despite the first victory, sophomore Diana Toia and junior Smaranda Stan, as well as senior Diana Novaceanu and freshman Aleksandra Petrova couldn't build on the momentum and fell to their opponents, giving Bowling Green the one point they would need to claim victory.
Novaceanu tied up the match by winning first singles over Jakupcin in three sets 7-5, 0-6, 6-2. Popescu maintained the momentum by winning her team-leading 21st singles match of the year. Popescu won second singles over Chiricosta in three sets, 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3.
Buffalo looked to be in control of the match when Stan won in fourth singles, giving Buffalo three of the first four singles matches. Stan won her 20th singles match of the season by defeating Samantha Kintzel 6-1, 6-1.
This would be the last match that Buffalo would win as the Bulls faltered down the stretch, losing both fifth and sixth singles, as well as third singles, falling to the Falcons, 4-3 overall. Harijanto could have won the match for the Bulls in third singles, as she pushed Katia Babina to three sets, before falling 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.
After the disappointing loss to Bowling Green, Buffalo allowed Western Michigan to prove they are still the best team in the MAC. The Broncos pushed their conference record to 5-0, after facing a grueling out of conference schedule during which they played some of the best teams in the nation.
The Broncos (11-7, 5-0 MAC) had no trouble defeating Buffalo yet again, this time by the count of 6-1. Harijanto and Popescu again scored for the Bulls, giving Buffalo the lead for the doubles point. But for the second straight match Buffalo's second and third doubles teams could not answer back for a second win, and Western Michigan went into singles play with a 1-0 advantage.
In singles play Stan was the only Bull to pick up a victory, defeating Emily Dudzik 6-3, 7-6(3).
Buffalo will look to correct their mistakes and break their three-game slide when they face-off against MAC foe, the Akron Zips, on Friday, April 11. The match will conclude Buffalo's three game road trip and begins at 1 p.m.
