Men's Tennis Weekly Release

Bulls Give Colgate the Brush Off, Duquesne Match Postponed

After spotting visiting Colgate a victory in the first doubles match to be completed on Sunday, the University at Buffalo men’s tennis team swept the remaining eight matches to defeat the Raiders 7-0 at the Village Glen Tennis Center. UB’s scheduled match against Duquesne was postponed due to poor weather south of Buffalo that prevented the Dukes from making the trip.

Doubles Point Not Easy to Win, But Accomplished

Octavian Stane

UB scored the doubles point with a comeback win after dropping the number one match. UB’s top duo of Albert Alant (Pretoria, South Africa/Niskayuna (NY)) and Kirill Kolomytes (Moscow, Russia/Moscow High School 155) fell to Colgate’s Chris Innes and Marshall Wheeler, 8-5, for the lone blemish to the Bulls’ run on Sunday. From there, the number two duo of Mike Rockman (Toronto, Ontario/Thornlea) and Yules Hadisubroto (Jakarta, Indonesia/SMUN 21) scored an 8-3 win over Martin MacIntyre and Michael Yassky to set up the number three match as the decider. With the number one and two matches in the books, the number three match was tied 6-6 when it became clear that the winner of the match would take the doubles point. UB’s Nikesh Singh Panthlia (George Town, Malaysia/BMK Penang Free School) and Octavian Stane (Toronto, Ontario/Leaside) then rallied to take the final two games over Tyler Deck and John Noqueras to score the 8-6 win and give the Bulls their first point.

Rockman’s Match Turns Into Thriller

Mike Rockman

The final match to be completed was the number one match between Mike Rockman and Martin MacIntyre. After MacIntyre won the opening set, 6-3, Rockman rallied in the second set and led 5-4, serving for the set. However MacIntyre fought back to take the next two games for a 6-5 lead, before Rockman tied the set, 6-6, to force a tiebreaker. In the tiebreaker, Rockman jumped out to a 4-1 lead before MacIntyre stormed back to take a 6-5 lead, needing just one more point to take the match. At 6-5, Rockman left a volley return directly in front of MacIntyre who needed to just drop the ball into Rockman’s court for the point. However, MacIntyre took a full swing at the ball and knocked it out of bounds, tying the breaker at 6-6. The pair switched sides for the second time in the breaker and Rockman finished out the set with a pair of winners for the 8-6 tiebreaker decision. In the ten-point super-tiebreaker, Rockman maintained control throughout play, winning 10-7 and giving the Bulls the shutout win. Rockman scored his 11th singles win of the year, tied for the team lead with Yules Hadisubroto.

Singh Panthlia Winner of Four in a Row

Nikesh Singh Panthlia

With his singles and doubles victories over Colgate, Nikesh Singh Panthlia has won his last four matches. This includes singles and doubles wins against Manhattan in UB’s 4-3 triumph over the Jaspers on January 19. For the season, Singh Panthlia is 10-6 in singles play, including a 3-0 mark in the number two slot and 10-3 in doubles action.