Bulls come up short on senior day

On a day when the women's tennis team bid farewell to its lone senior, Tamara Markovic, the emotion made it hard for Buffalo to focus.

In the last home match of the season, the Bulls (11-4, 2-4 Mid-American Conference) fell to Akron (16-8, 4-2 MAC), 6-1.

"It's an emotional day," said head coach Kristen Ortman. "There's a lot going on, and it's hard to focus on what's going on the court. I think that was an issue."

Buffalo's sole doubles win of the day came from the second doubles pairing of freshman Gopika Kapoor and junior Anamaria Candanoza, who earned the victory by a score of 8-5.

In first doubles, the combination of juniors Tanvi Shah and Miranda Podlas fell 8-5. Third partners sophomore Laura Fernandez and junior Marta Stoyanova fell behind early and could not find a way to catch up, eventually losing the match 8-1.

All six matches in singles play were decided in straight sets. The Bulls found themselves on the losing side, dropping five of the six singles matches.

Kapoor picked up the lone singles win for the Bulls, beating her opponent 6-0, 6-1.

"For me, every time I go into a match, I don't really care about what I've accomplished before," Kapoor said. "Every match is a new match. I don't care who I play or where I play in the lineup. It's just a new day."

Kapoor's teammates did not fare as well, with Buffalo losing in straight sets in the other five singles matches.

"I think that Akron out-executed us today," Ortman said. "They hit their shots and we didn't."

Shah and Podlas, the team's first and second single players, lost their matches 3-6, 0-6, and 5-7, 3-6, respectively.

No. 5 Fernandez and No. 6 Candanoza also suffered defeat, 4-6, 2-6, and 5-7, 2-6, respectively.

Markovic could not get a win on senior day, falling 0-6, 1-6 to Prang Pantusart.

"It's hard playing on a team because it's something I'm not used to," Kapoor said. "Tennis is a really individual sport. But playing as a team is kind of hard. Even though you win your own match, you still have to have everyone on the team win for your entire team to win. So it's a different experience."

The Bulls have now dropped three of their last four matches since starting the spring season on a 10-game winning streak.

"We started off really well and our confidence was really good and we should have built on that," Kapoor said.

There are now only two games left in the regular season.

"It's crunch time," Ortman said. "Time to show up and work hard."

Buffalo finishes its season on the road for its last two MAC matchups. The first of those two road matches is scheduled for Friday at 1 p.m. against Eastern Michigan (8-12, 3-3 MAC).

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