Men's Tennis Hangs on to Defeat Marist, 4-3

Nikesh Singh Panthlia

WILLIAMSVILLE, NY – With four singles wins, the University at Buffalo men's tennis team scored a 4-3 victory over visiting Marist in the Bulls' second match of a day-night doubleheader at the Village Glen Tennis Center. The Bulls have now posted four straight victories and improved to 8-11 overall while handing the Red Foxes their fourth loss of the season at 13-4.

By agreement of the coaches, the teams played the singles matches first followed by the doubles clashes instead of the regular format of doubles and then singles. The Bulls scored four singles wins to clinch the match prior to taking the court for the doubles showdowns.

UB's Mike Rockman (Toronto, Ontario/Thornlea) scored his second singles win of the day by surviving the strong serving of Marist's Pedro Genovese and sending the Red Foxes' big hitter into several unforced errors. Rockman picked up his 17th win of the season and school record 83rd of his career with the 6-3, 6-1 decision in the number one match.

Octavian Stane

Also picking up singles wins for the Bulls were Nikesh Singh Panthlia (George Town, Malaysia/BMK Penang Free School), playing in the number two slot, Yules Hadisubroto (Jakarta, Indonesia/SMUN 21) at number four, and Octavian Stane (Toronto, Ontario/Leaside) from the number five spot. All three won their matches in straight sets. It was the second singles victory of the doubleheader for all three players as well.

After the singles had been decided, the doubles commenced with Marist taking two of the three contests to gain the one point. The number one match decided the point with Marist's Genovese and Loic Sessagesimi picking up a 7-2 tiebreaker victory to defeat Singh Panthlia and Kirill Kolomytes (Moscow, Russia/Moscow High School 155), 9-8. Rockman and Hadisubroto scored UB's doubles win with an 8-5 victory over Christian Coley and Gregory Marks.

The Bulls travel to Toledo to face the Rockets in their final showdown of the regular season on Sunday, April 22 starting at 1:00 pm.

Buffalo 4, Marist 3

Singles

1 Mike Rockman (UB) d. Pedro Genovese (MC), 6-3, 6-1

2 Nikesh Singh Panthlia (UB) d. Loic Sessagesimi (MC), 6-4, 6-4

3 Christian Coley (MC) d. Kirill Kolomytes (UB), 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-6)

4 Yules Hadisubroto (UB) d. Gregory Marks (MC), 7-5, 6-4

5 Octavian Stane (UB) d. Ray Josephs (MC), 6-3, 6-3

6 Antonio Oliver (MC) d. Eric Rothstein (UB), 6-2, 6-4

Doubles

1 Pedro Genovese/Loic Sessagesimi (MC) d. Nikesh Singh Panthlia/Kirill Kolomytes (UB), 9-8 (2)

2 Mike Rockman/Yules Hadisubroto (UB) d. Christian Coley/Gregory Marks (MC), 8-5

3 Ray Josephs/Antonio Oliver (MC) d. Octavian Stane/Eric Rothstein (UB), 8-2