Nick Zieziula

ST. BONAVENTURE, NY - The University at Buffalo men's tennis team went 1-2 against three of the top teams in their conferences at the Bonnie Duals held at St. Bonaventure University over the weekend.

In Saturday's opening match, the Bulls dropped a 4-3 decision to Manhattan, picked to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this season. UB then played two matches on Sunday, downing 2003 America East champion Binghamton, 4-3, in a match that lasted more than four hours and immediately returning to the court to face the host Bonnies, the defending Atlantic-10 champions, falling 4-3.

Junior Nick Zieziula (Hamburg, NY/St. Francis) led the way for the Bulls in the three matches. Zieziula, playing second singles, was 3-0 against his opponents, winning in straight sets against Binghamton's Richemn Mourad and St. Bonaventure's Nikhil Murali. In Saturday's match against Manhattan's Erez Cohen, Zieziula needed a tiebreaker to claim the match, downing Cohen, 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8). Zieziula also teamed with junior Randy Rocchio (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville East) to form UB's top doubles duo. The pair went 2-1 with wins over Manhattan and Binghamton before falling to Murali and Alejandro Nery of St. Bonaventure, 8-5.

Two other Bulls, freshmen Mike Rockman (Toronto, Ontario/Thornhill) and Yules Hadisubroto (Jakarta, Indonesia) at numbers three and six, respectively, also posted perfect 3-0 records in singles play. Rockman needed three sets to knock off Manhattan's Diego Alvarado and Binghamton's Brian O'Connor. Against O'Connor, Rockman rallied from a set down to win the second set, 7-6, in a 7-1 tiebreaker and then cruised to a 6-3 win in the final set. Hadisubroto won all three of his matches in straight sets.

Rangga Prayudha (Jakarta, Indonesia/ESI International Academy/Ventura College) gave UB the victory against Binghamton as he outlasted Juan Garcia in the fifth singles match. Prayudha dropped the first set to Garcia, 6-1, then rallied to take the final two sets, 6-4, 6-3.