10-love

When the anxiety of losing all the time goes away, sometimes the pressure of winning constantly becomes its own problem.

For the women's tennis team, that's a good problem to have.

The Bulls (10-0, 1-0 Mid-American Conference) are one of only two programs in the NCAA that is undefeated thus far in the season. The other is Ivy League powerhouse Cornell (11-0). Buffalo extended the winning streak with a 6-1 victory over Northern Illinois (14-4, 0-2 MAC) on Saturday.

The match had an almost routine-like air about it, as the girls came to the Miller Tennis Center prepared to compete. Despite their prominence on the court, Bulls head coach Kristen Ortman said there were nerves coming into the game.

"There's always some nerves," Ortman said. "This was our first MAC match. It's great being at the top but there's always a little more pressure there. So, we were working through those nerves of: 'Hey, this is what we're practicing for, and this is why we're here.' They did a great job of working through those and being disciplined."

Buffalo shook the nerves early and took advantage of a Huskies team that suffered a harsh blow of defeat just the day before, being swept by Akron.

Junior Anamaria Candanoza and freshman Gopika Kapoor finished first in doubles, defeating their opponents 8-1. Juniors Tanvi Shah and Miranda Podlas followed, taking the second doubles match to clinch the point with an 8-3 win. Laura Fernandez and Marta Stoyanova finished the doubles sweep with an 8-6 finish.

"I think we're just playing great doubles," Ortman said. "I don't think it has anything to do with who we're playing against. The girls know what they need to do to win and they're doing what they need to do to execute that."

The transition from doubles to singles came smoothly, and the Buffalo dominance continued. Wins in straight sets through the first four singles matches clinched the win.

Podlas was first to leave the court, limiting her opponent to just three points in her 6-1 and 6-2 finishes. The Bulls limited the Huskies to 40 of a possible 74 points in the six singles matches, including two matches that went into extra sets.

Candanoza's match was the final of the evening, a tightly locked battle that started with a split in the first two games. The match came to an unexpected stop when Candanoza felt tightness in her hamstring from a lingering case of tendonitis. The tiebreaking set took a long pause as the trainer rushed to the court to work on the leg.

"At the end of this match, I felt like my hamstring was very tight," Candanoza said. "What he did was try to release the muscles, so when I got onto the court, I felt totally different. I felt lighter and I felt like I was a new person."

Candanoza came out strong and scored 11 times in the tiebreaker to take the sixth point for the Bulls.

With the first MAC game out of the way, Ortman is only looking forward and looking to return to business as usual on the courts.

"I feel like once you get the first one out of the way that it's easy to get back to business and working on things," Ortman said. "I think there were a lot of things that [coach Smaranda Stan] and I noticed that we have to work on this week and prepare for next weekend just like any other week, focus on our strengths and what we do best. And we'll be ready and be rested for next weekend."

The Bulls will continue MAC play next weekend as they head out to Oxford, Ohio, to take on Miami Ohio at 1 p.m. on Friday and Muncie, Ind., to take on Ball State at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Email: sports@ubspectrum.com