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PROVIDENCE, RI – The University at Buffalo’s men’s tennis team saw difficult competition as the 2004 Northeast Invitational Tournament at Brown University came to a close on Sunday.

Only one of UB’s entrants among the nine singles flights and five doubles flights advanced into the winner’s bracket of the tournament that featured top players and teams from throughout the Northeastern United States.

Mike Rockman

Sophomore Mike Rockman (Toronto, Ontario/Thornhill) opened the tournament with a victory in the second flight singles competition. Rockman needed to rally after dropping the first set to defeat Manhattan’s Filip Szymik, 3-6, 6-1, 6-0. Rockman then advanced into the quarterfinals bowing to Maryland’s Tony Demers in another three-set contest, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2. Rockman concluded the tournament on Sunday with a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Brown’s Phil Charm in the consolation round.

The remainder of the Bulls dropped their first-round matches and were forced into the loser’s bracket.

At number one, Nick Zieziula (Hamburg, NY/St. Francis) fell to Hofstra’s Nikola Djordevic, 6-2, 6-4. Djordevic has previously earned points on the ATP circuit. Zieziula then dropped a 6-3, 6-2 decision to Artom Bagdanovich of Boston College.

At number three, Yules Hadisubroto (Jakarta, Indonesia/SMUN 21) was bounced out with losses to Brown’s Michael Scherer (6-2, 6-1) and Caleb Gardner of Harvard (6-1, 7-5).

At number four, Matt Kennedy (Mississaugua, Ontario/Erindale) dropped a 6-2, 6-2 match to Luka Djordevic of Hofstra and then rebounded with a victory over Rob Stuphen of Rhode Island, 6-3, 6-3.

At number six, Albert Alant (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna) lost a tough 7-6, 7-6 decision to Army’s Josh Jones. He was then downed by Bucknell’s Nick Denefrio, 6-4, 6-3, in the loser’s bracket.

At number seven, Joe Popielarczyk (Buffalo, NY/McKinley) was decisioned in both his matches with a 6-2, 6-0 loss to Lehigh’s John Nespoli and a tough 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (14-12) contest to Jorge Acuna of Hartford in the second round.

At number eight, Mike Zappone (Queensbury, NY/Queensbury) also fell in his two matches with losses to Rhode Island’s Nate Carvalho (7-6, 7-5) in the first round and Niagara’s Dave Reuter (6-3, 7-6) in the second round.

UB’s doubles squads didn’t fare much better. At number one, Zieziula and Kennedy dropped a 9-7 decision to Brown’s Charm and Richard Moss in the first round and an 8-5 contest to Villanova’s Aaron Kusza and Dmitri Chimerakis. At number two, Hadisubroto and Alant fell to Szymik and Alon Cohen of Manhattan, 8-4, in the opening round. The UB pair then knocked off Connecticut’s Mason Viau and Brian Ravesloot, 8-4, but fell in the loser’s bracket semifinals to Soma Kesthely and Derrick Chou of Boston College, 8-1.The number four tandem of Popilarczyk and Zappone lost their first round match to a pair from Hartford, 8-6. The UB team then picked up a default victory and moved into the loser’s bracket semifinals, falling to Boston College’s Jason Sechrist and Chris Louis, 8-1.

Fatigue and the fact that a couple of UB’s key players, Randy Rocchio (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville East) and Josh Liederman (Queens Village, NY/Benjamin Cardozo) were unable to play proved to be factors in UB’s showing over the weekend. This was the third consecutive large-scale tournament for the Bulls in as many weeks following the Buffalo/Bonaventure Tournament and Dartmouth’s Volkl Shootout. The Bulls host Rider in a dual meet on Saturday, October 9 in their next action.