Men's Tennis Defeated by Cornell, 4-3

Nikesh Singh Panthlia

ITHACA, NY – For the second match in a row, the University at Buffalo's men's tennis team suffered a 4-3 loss that was decided on the final singles match of day. On Sunday, the Bulls (4-6) fell to Ivy League-rival Cornell (6-3), 4-3, after dropping an identical decision to Stony Brook on Saturday. The match was played at Cornell's Reis Tennis Center.

The Bulls earned the doubles point to open the match. The number two tandem of Nikesh Singh Panthlia (George Town, Malaysia/BMK Penang Free School) and Octavian Stane (Toronto, Ontario/Leaside) triumphed over Kyle Doppelt and Joshua Goldstein, 8-6, to collect the opening point. The number three team of Mike Rockman (Toronto, Ontario/Thornlea) and Albert Alant (Pretoria, South Africa/Niskayuna (NY)) scored an 8-5 win over Weston Nichols and Bryant Yung, It was the duo's fourth-straight win and Rockman's eighth consecutive doubles victory of the year.

Three of the matches went the full three sets as UB captured just one. At number two, Singh Panthlia rallied from a set down to knock off Dan Brous. Singh Panthlia scored a second-set tiebreaker win to knot the match at a set apiece and then took the final set, 6-4, to give him 13 singles wins this season.

Yules Hadisubroto (Jakarta, Indonesia/SMUN 21) moved up to number four on the singles ladder for the weekend matches and scored a victory for the Bulls on Sunday. Hadisubroto scored a 6-4, 6-3 win over Goldstein.

For the second straight day, the deciding match came in the number three matchup as freshman Kirill Kolomytes (Moscow, Russia/Moscow High School 155) and Doppelt battled for three sets. Kolomytes, a three-set victim to Stony Brook's Youssef Fassi-Fehri on Saturday, split the opening sets with Doppelt as each scored a 6-3 win. The final set went to a tiebreaker with Kolomytes leading 6-4 and serving for the match before Doppelt rallyed to take five of the next six points for the 9-7 decision.

Although the Bulls suffered their fourth loss in a row, the team was able to accomplish the feat of scoring more than one point against an Ivy League foe in dual-meet play for the first time in UB's Division I history.

The Bulls return to the courts for a pair of matches in Florida. UB travels to Stetson on March 13, followed by a March 14 contest at Jacksonville, for their next two matches.

Cornell 4, Buffalo 3

Doubles

1 Dan Brous/Rory Heggie (CU) d. Yules Hadisubroto/Kirill Kolomytes (UB), 8-6

2 Nikesh Singh Panthlia/Octavian Stane (UB) d. Kyle Doppelt/Joshua Goldstein (CU), 8-6

3 Mike Rockman/Albert Alant (UB) d. Weston Nichols/Bryant Yung (CU), 8-5

Order of finish: 1 3 2

Singles

1 Nick Brunner d. Mike Rockman (UB), 6-1, 6-2

2 Nikesh Singh Panthlia (UB) d. Dan Brous (CU), 2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4

3 Kyle Doppelt (CU) d. Kirill Kolomytes (UB), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7)

4 Yules Hadisubroto (UB) d. Joshua Goldstein (CU), 6-4, 6-3

5 Peter Kung (CU) d. Octavian Stane (UB), 6-3, 6-3

6 Marc Asch (CU) d. Albert Alant (UB), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3

Order of finish: 1 4 6 5 2 3