Bulls Split Season-Opening Matches in Rhode Island

Kirill Kolomyts

BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo men’s tennis team split the opening weekend of the spring schedule with a pair of 6-1 decisions. On Saturday night, the Bulls knocked off Bryant. The Bulls then fell at Brown, 6-1, on Sunday morning.

In the opener against Bryant, playing in its first year as a Division I program, the Bulls scored seven wins in the nine matches. UB won the doubles point with a pair of wins including a 7-4 tiebreaker win in the third match as Kristof Custers (Balen, Belgium/European School of Mol) and Alexis Lluis (Mexico City, Mexico/Colegio Americano de Tabasco) prevailed over Nicholai Hill and Zehn Laliwala. In singles play, the Bulls took the top five contests, all in straight sets, with Custers picking up a 6-0, 6-1 win over Thomas Nowak in the fourth singles contest.

From there, the Bulls traveled to Brown, taking one doubles and one singles match. The team of Kirill Kolomyts (Moscow, Russia/Moscow High School 155) and Alexey Kalinin defeated Jonathan Pearlman and Nathaniel Gorham, 8-6, in the number two contest. Kolomyts was the lone singles winner, defeating Chris Lee at number two, in a third-set supertiebreaker.

The Bulls (1-1) next host Youngstown State on February 7 at 10:00am.

Buffalo 6, Bryant 1
Doubles
1 Mitch Zenaty/Marcelo Mazzetto (UB) d. Cristian Ballestrieri/Jose Rodriguez (BU), 8-3
2 Kirill Kolomyts/Alexey Kalinin (UB) d. Thomas Nowak/Kevin Gardiner (BU), 8-5
3 Kristof Custers/Alexis Lluis (UB) d. Nicholai Hill/Zehn Laliwala (BU), 8-7 (4)
Singles
1 Marcelo Mazzetto (UB) d. Cristian Ballestrieri (BU), 6-3, 6-4
2 Kirill Kolomyts (UB) d. Kevin Gardiner (BU), 6-1, 6-1
3 Alexey Kalinin (UB) d. Jose Rodriguez (BU), 6-0, 6-3
4 Kristof Custers (UB) d. Thomas Nowak (BU), 6-0, 6-1
5 Octavian Stane (UB) d. Zehn Laliwala (BU), 6-3, 6-0
6 Nicholai Hill (BU) d. Mitch Zenaty (UB), 6-0, 5-7, 10-4

Brown 6, Buffalo 1
Doubles
1 Noah Gardner/Sam Garland (BU) d. Mitch Zenaty/Marcelo Mazzetto (UB), 8-1
2 Kirill Kolomyts/Alexey Kalinin (UB) d. Jonathan Pearlman/Nathaniel Gorham (BU), 8-6
3 Kendrick Au/Chris Lee (BU) d. Octavian Stane/Kristof Custers (UB), 9-8 (5)
Singles
1 Jonathan Pearlman (BU) d. Marcelo Mazzetto (UB), 6-2, 6-3
2 Kirill Kolomyts (UB) d. Chris Lee (BU), 7-6, 4-6, 10-7
3 Nathaniel Gorham (BU) d. Alexey Kalinin (UB), 6-1, 6-3
4 Sam Garland (BU) d. Kristof Custers (UB), 6-1, 6-4
5 Andrew Yazmer (BU) d. Octavian Stane (UB), 6-3, 6-0
6 Charlie Posner (BU) d. Mitch Zenaty (UB), 6-1, 6-2