If this past weekend is any indicator, the men's tennis team has a long way to go before returning to the prominent level of play it so often displayed last season.
The team's struggles were on display at the ITA Northeast Regional Tournament in Ithaca over the weekend. The Bulls struggled early and often, resulting in just one player advancing past the third day of play.
"The fall is obviously about focusing on what we need to work on, and this is the biggest tournament of the fall," said head coach Lee Nickell. "I think our nerves kind of showed. It's just one of those things where I think we're thinking in terms of what the ramifications would be if we win as opposed to focusing on playing our game and knowing what we're working on in the fall."
In the opening day of matches, two Bulls took to the courts with their sights set on advancing past the qualifying stages and into the main draw. Freshman Ivan Vereschaga defeated St. Bonaventure's Luis Guevera, 6-2, 6-2, advancing to the second round of qualifying. Vereschaga's success would be short-lived, however, as he fell to Fairfield's Ian Tesmond, 6-3, 6-4.
Senior Alex Kalinin added to the disappointment of the day, as he dropped his qualifying match to Boston University's Jesse Frieder, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Despite the day's struggles, Nickell lauded the inexperienced Vereschaga.
"[He did an] amazing job at keeping his composure," Nickell said. "That's what we really wanted to see him do."
Things went from bad to worse for the Bulls on the second day of play. Despite their unfamiliarity playing with one another, doubles tandem Wojciech Starakiewicz and Damien David entered the weekend with expectations to play deep into the tournament. However, those high hopes were shattered in their opening round 8-6 defeat to Columbia's Winston Lin and Haig Schneiderman.
"[Starakiewicz and David] are exceptional double players and they're still kind of trying to find their way playing together. There's a certain chemistry factor that plays into doubles," Nickell said. "We expect both of those guys to do big things in doubles, and it's a bit of a disappointment that we drew a tough first round and didn't get the chance to play our way into the tournament."
The Bulls' lone singles player, junior Vusa Hove, met the same fate as his teammates. The junior dropped his opening round match to Harvard's Sean Chaudhuri, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4.
Buffalo entered the third day of play with arguably its top two singles players in David and Starakiewicz taking the court.
Starakiewicz furthered the Bulls' futility. He was defeated by Dartmouth's Cameron Ghorbani, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6.
David finally gave the Bulls a singles win, as he recorded a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Yale's Zach Krumholz.
Nickell acknowledged his team's struggles on the weekend, but refused to buy into the notion that they're taking a step backwards after last year's successful campaign. "We had a better fall this year than our past few years," Nickell said.
The lone remaining entrant for the Bulls will continue play at the ITA Regionals on Sunday, with David taking on No. 5 Vaska Mladenov of St. John's.
"Our team this year should be by far the best team in Buffalo men's tennis history," Nickell said. "We're not going to let a few losses make us feel like we're down at all."
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