Men's Tennis Defeated By Western Michigan, 6-1

Marcelo Mazzetto

WILLIAMSVILLE, NY – The University at Buffalo men’s tennis team fell to defending Mid-American Conference champion Western Michigan, 6-1, Saturday at the Village Glen Tennis Center. The Bulls are now 4-14 overall and 0-3 in the MAC while the Broncos are 13-7 overall, 2-0 in league play.

UB scored one singles victory, gaining the point in dramatic fashion. In the number two match, UB's Marcelo Mazzetto (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Colegio Carlos Magno) defeated Kazuya Komada in a super-tiebreaker. Mazzetto took the opening set, 7-5, then dropped the second set by an indentical 7-5 score to set up the third-set super-tiebreaker. In the breaker, Mazzetto fell behind early and trailed Komada, 7-3, before rallying to take the next six points for a 9-7 lead in the 10-point contest. Komada then scored the next two points to tie the breaker at 9-9. Mazzetto picked up the 10th point, but was still unable to put away Komada, who tied the breaker at 10-10 on the next serve. Finally, Mazzetto was able to secure the final two points and win the breaker, 12-10.

After Western Michigan won the opening doubles point, the Broncos were able to take the match with three straight-set wins in the number five, six and one matches. WMU later won the number four match as UB's Kirill Kolomyts (Moscow, Russia/Moscow High School 155) retired to prevent aggravating the injury that had sidelined him for much of March.

In the number three match, UB's Octavian Stane (Toronto, Ontario/Leaside) also went to a third set against WMU's Alex Birchmeier, falling 10-7 in the deciding super-tiebreaker.

The Bulls close out the home portion of the schedule tomorrow against Binghamton. Play begins at 11:00 am at the Village Glen Tennis Center.

Western Michigan 6, Buffalo 1

Doubles

1 Casey Cullen/Kevin Hayward (WMU) d. Nikesh Singh Panthlia/Octavian Stane (UB), 8-2

2 Alex Birchmeier/Bryan Norville (WMU) d. Marcelo Mazzetto/Juan Carlos Wynter (UB), 8-4

3 Michael Calderone/Kazuya Komada (WMU) d. Kirill Kolomyts/Alexis Lluis (UB), 8-1

Order of finish: 3 1 2

Singles

1 Kevin Hayward (WMU) d. Nikesh Singh Panthlia (UB), 6-3, 6-2

2 Marcelo Mazzetto (UB) d. Kazuya Komada (WMU), 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (12-10)

3 Alex Birchmeier (WMU) d. Octavian Stane (UB), 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-7)

4 Alejandro Staub (WMU) d. Kirill Kolomyts (UB), 6-7 (5), 1-2 ret.

5 Bryan Norville (WMU) d. Alexis Lluis (UB), 6-0, 6-2

6 Michael Calderone (WMU) d. Juan Carlos Wynter (UB), 6-3, 6-1

Order of finish: 5 6 1 4 3 2