With half the season gone and a long string of consecutive losses piling up for the men's tennis team, it has found a way to turn things around in swift fashion.
Coming off back-to-back to wins over spring break, the Bulls (4-7) started their outdoor home schedule against St. Bonaventure (1-8, 0-3 Atlantic 10) on Wednesday afternoon. The nice weather helped the Bulls christen the Ellicott Courts with a decisive victory over the Bonnies, 7-0.
"Even though we won 7-0, I don't feel we played our best today," said head coach Lee Nickel. "We did a good job coming out with energy in doubles and then in singles we were a little flat, but a win's a win and we'll take it any way we can get it."
This win marks the third straight for the Bulls, with a combined score of 20-1 over the last three bouts. Not only did the Bulls disallow the Bonnies a victory in any singles match, they didn't even give up a set to the struggling opponent.
Junior Vusa Hove (13-5) put on a clinic on the second court, winning mightily 6-0, 6-0 against junior Luis Guevara. The rest of the Bulls followed suit, as they were able to win all six singles matches handily.
Freshman standout Damien David added another victory to his young colligate r?(c)sum?(c), improving his record to an imposing 18-6 on the season.
Nickel's most recent lineup changes have contributed to the success of the team.
Senior Wojciech Starakiewicz and Hove were a combined 3-5 early in the season as the number two and three players on the lineup card. Recently Nickel has flip-flopped the two, moving Hove to the second spot and Starakiewicz down to three. Since the move the two upperclassmen are a combined 12-2.
The single's lineup was not the only part of the team that needed adjusting. Nickel struggled to find a successful combination of doubles teammates throughout most of the season. Senior Alex Kalinin and sophomore Yevgeniy Jason Shkodnik have been a steady pair all season in the three spot. But the first two spots on the lineup have been a carousel for Nickel this season.
"Right now our number three team has stepped up and led with good energy," Nickel said. "The fact that they've been successful and done a good job, we've wanted to find out what the best combination is at one and two, and we like the way that things are going right now."
Since pairing Hove and freshman Damien David together, the two are 3-0. Newly paired in the second spot is Starakiewicz and sophomore Travis Zappia, who are also unbeaten at 3-0. Nickel finds it no coincidence that over the last three games the Bulls have won their matches, and the early important doubles point.
The Bulls are going to ride this hot-streak as long as possible. The Mid-American Conference starts after a matchup with Marist (6-4) this weekend. Although the recent shutout victories have been impressive, the opponents the Bulls will face in the MAC will not be so easy.
"I think this weekend will be a bigger test for us against Marist, just to see how we perform against a little better squad," Nickel said. "We've got some momentum going, we're definitely feeling a lot better than we were a couple weeks ago. Marist is going to be a good test for us this weekend, and I'd certainly like to be on a four-match win streak as we go into Toledo."
The Bulls will travel to Poughkeepsie, NY Saturday afternoon to face to the Shooters. The match is at 2:30 p.m.
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Photo: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
Photo: Paul Hokanson / UB Athletics
