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Men's Tennis Eliminated in MAC Tournament

Mike Rockman

FORT WAYNE, IN – The University at Buffalo men’s tennis team was eliminated from the 2007 Mid-American Conference Championships on Thursday, 4-0, by Northern Illinois at the Wildwood Racquet Club. It was the second consecutive season that the Bulls had been knocked out of the tournament by the Huskies and by an identical 4-0 margin.

Originally scheduled for play outdoors, Thursday’s match was moved to the indoor courts in Fort Wayne with the teams utilizing just four courts.

In the doubles contests, Northern Illinois scored the point with a pair of wins at numbers two and three. UB’s number one tandem of Yules Hadisubroto (Jakarta, Indonesia/SMUN 21) and Nikesh Singh Panthlia (George Town, Malaysia/BMK Penang Free School) were tied at 7-7 against NIU’s Adam Ford and Brian Livingston as play was stopped when the Huskies clinched the opening point.

The Bulls, seeded fifth in the six-team tournament, were quickly eliminated as NIU scored straight-set wins in the number one, two and four matches. Singh Panthlia fell to Livingston, 6-3, 6-3, in the number one match. Hadisubroto, playing number four, was defeated by Jimmy Chu, 6-2, 6-4. Hadisuboro had knocked off Chu in three sets for the clinching point when the Bulls defeated the Huskies, 4-3, in their regular season meeting on April 14.

The match concluded with senior Mike Rockman (Toronto, Ontario/Thornlea) seeing his UB career end with a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Alex Friesen in the number two match. Rockman ends his four-year career with the Bulls as the winningest player in men’s singles history with 83 victories.

Three matches were still in progress when play was halted. UB’s Kirill Kolomytes (Moscow, Russia/Moscow High School 155) was nearing the end of the second set with Ford and appeared headed into a tiebreaker. Number five Octavian Stane (Toronto, Ontario/Leaside) and number six Albert Alant (Pretoria, South Africa/Niskayuna (NY)) had just started their matches due to the limited court availability when they were pulled.

The Bulls finish the 2006-07 campaign with an 8-13 overall record and 2-3 in MAC play. Northern Illinois, the tournament’s fourth seed, improved to 10-11 and will face regular season champion Western Michigan in one of Friday’s semifinals. Toledo, which defeated host IPFW on Thursday, will meet Ball State in the other semifinal.

Northern Illinois 4, Buffalo 0

Doubles

1 Yules Hadisubroto/Nikesh Singh Panthlia (UB) vs. Adam Ford/Brian Livingston (NIU), 7-7, abandoned

2 Alex Friesen/Jimmy Chu (NIU) d. Octavian Stane/Kirill Kolomytes (UB), 8-6

3 Alfonso Monroy/Diego Zegarra-Ballon (NIU) d. Mike Rockman/Albert Alant, (UB) 8-5

Singles

1 Brian Livingston (NIU) d. Nikesh Singh Panthlia (UB), 6-3, 6-3

2 Alex Friesen (NIU) d. Mike Rockman (UB), 6-1, 6-4

3 Adam Ford (NIU) vs. Kirill Kolomytes (UB), 3-6, 6-5, abandoned

4 Jimmy Chu (NIU) d. Yules Hadisubroto (UB), 6-2, 6-4

5 Diego Zegarra-Ballon (NIU) vs. Octavian Stane (UB), 3-0, abandoned

6 Javier Bernabe (NIU) vs. Albert Alant (UB), 40-30, abandoned