Men’s tennis (2-7) roared into Mid-American Conference play Saturday with a 6-1 win over rival Binghamton (1-11) at the Miller Tennis Center.
Women’s tennis (11-3) had the opposite experience Friday — falling to Ivy League competitor Cornell (2-7), 6-1, in Ithaca. The women’s team bounced back with a 7-0 home shutout win over Niagara Monday.
The men’s team started off strong with a 6-0 shutout win in second doubles team freshman Yu-Shiang Huang and Cheng Tang, followed by a 6-2 win in third doubles by junior Greg Hastings and sophomore Finn Macnamara, to seal the doubles point.
Singles saw the Bulls dominate even further, winning five of six matches — all in straight sets.
Senior Simon Wibler started off on a strong winning his opening set at first singles (Score), but fell (score in the second set. This gave way to a third set super tiebreaker where Wibler was eventually defeated (score).
But defeat did not set the tone for the Bulls this time. Tang secured a 7-5, 6-2 win at second singles as Mcnamara won at three, 6-0, 6-2.
Freshman Daniils Snaiders then triumphed 6-2, 6-1 at fourth singles, followed by Huang’s 6-1, 6-1 win at fifth singles and Hastings’ 6-2, 6-3 victory at sixth singles.
The women’s team didn’t enjoy the same success over the weekend.
Friday’s game saw the Bulls fall to the Big Red on almost all fronts.
Wins at top and bottom doubles matches saw Cornell take the point, as second doubles team juniors Ambre Amat and Lolina Schietekat Sedas tied 4-4 before play was stopped.
Cornell clinched five of the six singles matches.
Amat was the sole barrier to the all-Red sweep, winning at fourth singles 6-4, 1-6, 10-5. Senior Hsin-Yuah Shih also managed to go three sets at second singles.
Monday saw the Bulls change the tone completely when they swept Niagara.
The Bulls breezed to success, clinching every doubles match. A 6-1 victory from senior Pia Schwarz and junior Azra Deniz Comlek in first doubles was followed up by a 6-3 win from seniors Gabriella Akopyan and Nikoleta Antoniou-Karadenitrou in second doubles, while Amat and Sedas clinched third doubles, 6-4.
Each UB singles player left the court triumphant, with straight-set wins in all six matches.
Schwarz won at first singles, 6-2, 6-0, as Shih clinched the 6-3, 6-1 victory at two. Akopyan matched Schwarz with a 6-2, 6-0 win at third, while Amat went on to grab the 6-2, 6-3 win at four.
Comlek engineered further success at fifth singles with a 6-4, 5-1 victory, as Antoniou-Karadenitrou finalized the winning streak, 6-2, 6-1 at six.
Men’s tennis will host Western Michigan on Friday at 1 p.m., while women’s tennis will open up Mid-American Conference play Friday at the same time at Miami (OH).
Sophie McNally is an assistant sports editor and can be reached at sophie.mcnally@ubspectrum.com
Sophie McNally is an assistant sports editor at The Spectrum. She is a history major studying abroad for a year from Newcastle University in the UK. In her spare time, she can be found blasting The 1975 or Taylor Swift and rowing on a random river at 5 a.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Aryan Sawant and Christo Abraham
