BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo men's tennis team concluded its Mid-American Conference slate Saturday afternoon, falling to the visiting Toledo Rockets, 5-2, at the Village Glen Tennis Center in Williamsville, NY. With the loss, the Bulls end their league record at 1-4 and are now 11-11 overall with two non-conference matches remaining. Toledo improves to 6-11 and 1-1 in the MAC.

Randy Rocchio

After dropping the doubles point, UB picked up a pair of singles victories to avoid the shutout. Second singles player Randy Rocchio (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville East) was put to the test in his match against Dipesh Rao. Rocchio took the first set 7-6, winning the tiebreaker, 7-2. Rocchio was a point from putting away the match in the second set, but Rao rallied by winning the final three games for a 7-5 decision to force a super-tiebreaker. Rocchio then pulled out the match by taking the ten-point tiebreaker, 10-4. Also earning a singles victory for the Bulls was Rannga Prayudha (Jakarta, Indonesia/ESI International Academy), at number five. Prayudha took the first set 7-5 and was leading the second set 3-0 when the match was stopped due to time contstaints.

The remainder of the singles matches went in favor of Toledo. UB's number one player, Fery Kasiman (Jakarta, Indonesia/ESI International Academy) fell to Khalid Al Nabhani, 6-1, 6-3. At number three, Josh Liederman (Queens Village, NY/Benjamin Cardozo) was decisioned, 6-2, 6-1, by Todd Wojtkowski. Nick Zieziula (Hamburg, NY/St. Francis) fell in a super-tiebreaker to Tony Tran, 3-6, 6-3, 10-6, at number four. Number six Ivan Chamdani (Jakarta, Indonesia/ESI International Academy) lost to Mirsad Begic, 6-2, 6-0.

Toledo swept the doubles to begin the match. Al.Nabhani and Tran downed Rocchio and Zieziula, 8-5, at number one. Gomez and Rao defeated Kasiman and Rohan Raikar (Albany, NY/Albany) at number two, 8-4. Begic and Wojtkowski won a 9-8 decision over Liederman and Prayudha with a 9-7 tiebreaker.

The Bulls close out the home schedule on Wednesday by hosting local rival Canisius at the University Tennis Center at 3 pm.

Toledo 5, Buffalo 2

Singles

1 Khalid Al Nabhani (UT) d. Fery Kasiman (UB), 6-1, 6-3

2 Randy Rocchio (UB) d. Dipesh Rao (UT), 7-6 (2), 5-7, 10-4

3 Todd Wojtkowski (UT) d. Josh Liederman (UB), 6-2, 6-1

4 Tony Tran (UT) d. Nick Zieziula (UB), 3-6, 6-3, 10-6

5 Rannga Prayudha (UB) d. Freddy Gomez (UT), 7-5, 3-0 ret.

6 Mirsad Begic (UT) d. Ivan Chamdani (UB), 6-2, 6-0

Doubles

1 Khalid Al Nabhani/Tony Tran (UT) d. Randy Rocchio/Nick Zieziula (UB), 8-5

2 Freddy Gomez/Dipesh Rao (UT) d. Fery Kasiman/Rohan Raikar (UB), 8-4

3 Mirsad Begic/Todd Wojtkowski (UT) d. Josh Liederman/Rannga Prayudha (UB), 9-8 (7)