ORLANDO, FL - The University at Buffalo men's tennis team began its spring break trip to Florida with a pair of convincing wins on Monday. The Bulls downed Atlantic 10 member Rhode Island, 7-0, and then knocked off NAIA member Ohio Dominican, 6-1. Both matches were played at Sanlando Park in Orlando.

Nick Zieziula

Against Rhode Island, the Bulls did not lose a set although the Rams put up a good fight. In singles action, number two player Randy Rocchio (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville East) needed a tiebreaker game to defeat Dustin Parente, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5 in the tiebreaker) in the closest match of the day. Rocchio also teammed with Nick Zieziula (Hamburg, NY/St. Francis) to form UB's top doubles combo as they downed Bill Moran and Parente, 8-4.

In the second match of the day, UB used a three new doubles combinations winning the number two and three matches to earn the one point. Joe Popielarczyk (Buffalo, NY/McKinley) and Rohan Raikar (Albany, NY/Albany) combined at number two to down Kevin Hornik and Adam Ewing, 8-6. Chris Pyke (Watertown, NY/Watertown) and Mike Zappone (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) also got some playing time as they defeated Aaron Festog and Tom Colvin, 8-3, at number three. UB took five of the six singles matches as well. Zieziula recorded a "double-bagel" victory, 6-0, 6-0, over Festog at number five while Josh Liederman (Queens Village, NY/Benjamin Cardozo) needed a tiebreaker to defeat Shawn Stamps at number three, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5). Rocchio was forced to default his number two match to Kevin Hornik after receiving two code violations for racket abuse. Rocchio was trailing, 5-7, 1-5, when the match was stopped.

The Bulls continue their Florida schedule with matches on Wednesday at 4:00 pm against St. Cloud and Thursday at 2:30 against Atlantic Sun Conference member Stetson in DeLand, FL.

UB 7, Rhode Island 0

Singles

1 Fery Kasiman (UB) d. Bill Moran (URI), 6-1, 6-3

2 Randy Rocchio (UB) d. Dustin Parente (URI), 6-4, 7-6 (5)

3 Josh Liederman (UB) d. Karl Antons (URI), 6-1, 6-4

4 Rannga Prahudha (UB) d. Dan Romeyn (URI), 6-4, 6-2

5 Nick Zieziula (UB) d. Rob Sutphen (URI), 6-4, 6-2

6 Ivan Chamdani (UB) d. Nick Barbera (URI), 6-1, 6-1

Doubles

1 Zieziula/Rocchio (UB) d. Moran/Parente (URI), 8-4

2 Kasiman/Prahudha (UB) d. Antons/Romeyn (URI), 8-3

3 Liederman/Raikar (UB) d. Sutphen/Barbera (URI), 8-6

UB 6, Ohio Dominican 1

Singles

1 Fery Kasiman (UB) d. David Taylor (ODC), 6-0, 6-3

2 Kevin Hornik (ODC) d. Randy Rocchio (UB), by default, 7-5, 5-1 (code violation)

3 Josh Liederman (UB) d. Shawn Stamps (ODC), 6-1, 7-6 (5)

4 Rannga Prahudha (UB) d. Adam Ewing (ODC), 6-1, 6-2

5 Nick Zieziula (UB) d. Aaron Festog (ODC), 6-0, 6-0

6 Ivan Chamdani (UB) d. Tom Colvin (ODC), 6-1, 6-0

Doubles

1 Taylor/Stamps (ODC) d. Prahudha/Zieziula (UB), 8-6

2 Joe Popielarczyk/Rohan Raikar (UB) d. Hornik/Ewing (ODC), 8-6

3 Chris Pyke/Mike Zappone (UB) d. Festog/Colvin, 8-3