Women’s (8-1) and men’s tennis (0-6) fell short in the same weekend for the first time in more than a year — particularly frustrating, since the women’s loss broke their eight-match win streak.
On Saturday, both teams suffered 5-2 defeats to Syracuse (6-1) and The University of Alabama (2-5) at Birmingham, respectively. Sunday saw men’s tennis falter again, with a 7-0 loss to Florida Gulf Coast University.
For the women’s team, Saturday’s loss snapped a winning streak that dated back to April 2021.
Women’s tennis was largely unsuccessful on the doubles side, with juniors Ambre Amat and Lolina Schietekat Sedas pulling off an impressive 6-3 victory in the only doubles win out of three matches for the Bulls..
The singles matches saw the Bulls secure two points, as junior Azra Deniz Comlek notched a 6-4, 6-3 win, while senior Gabriella Akopyan — a Spectrum staff writer — made her mark with a difficult 6-2, 6-2 win at third singles.
The women’s team will return to action on Friday, Feb. 25 at Cleveland State.
By contrast, men’s tennis secured the doubles point but just one of the singles matches in their 5-2 loss Saturday.
Freshmen Cheng Tang and Yu-Shiang Huang won 6-2 at second doubles. This set the scene for junior Greg Hastings and sophomore Finn Macnamara to notch a 6-4 triumph at third doubles — landing the Bulls an early 1-0 lead.
The second singles match saw Tang return victorious with a 7-6, 6-3 win over UAB sophomore Athanasios Spyropoulos. Tang landed the sole singles points for the Bulls, as the Blazers forced Huang to retire in his third set at fifth singles and bested Macnamara in a super tiebreaker in third singles after playing for just under two and a half hours.
Sunday was another tough loss for the Bulls. FGCU immediately took the doubles point, and were then near-unbreakable in singles.
Tang (second singles) and freshman Danils Snaiders (fourth singles) were the only Bulls to get at least one of their sets to the tiebreaker mark.
Men’s tennis will return to the court next Saturday at St. Bonaventure.
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: Ryan Hagen | UB Athletics
