Mike Rockman

ITHACA, NY - The University at Buffalo's hopes of scoring a men's tennis champion at the ITA Northeast Regional Championships was dealt a crushing blow as UB's entries in the singles and doubles competitions were eliminated from contention. Freshman singles player Mike Rockman (Toronto, Ontario/Thornhill) and doubles duo Randy Rocchio (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville East) and Nick Zieziula (Hamburg, NY/St. Francis) both fell in second round play at the tournament held at Cornell University's Reis Tennis Center.

Rockman, who had advanced to the second round following a 6-2, 6-3 win over Princeton's Hans Plukas on Friday, was defeated by Penn State's Todd Stecko, 6-1, 6-1 in the second round. Stecko was one of 16 men's players to be seeded 17th in the tournament. The top-16 seeds were announced prior to the tournament. Players 17-32 were also seeded but their seeds were not announced with each playing as the 17th seed.

Nick Zieziula

Rocchio and Zieziula moved into the second round late Friday night with an 8-3 win over Maryland-Baltimore County's duo of Mike Keller and Luis Baraldi. Rocchio and Zieziula were bounced from the main draw after extending Brown's Kris Goddard and Zack Pasanen, seeded eighth to a tiebreaker. Goddard and Pasanen won the tiebreaker, 10-6, to record the 9-8 decision.

Rocchio and Zieziula also competed in the consolation singles draw. Rocchio was defeated in his first match of the consolation round, 6-3, 6-2, by Yale's Milosz Gudzowski. Zieziula scored a bit of revenge for the Bulls as he defeated Plukas in the consolations by a 6-4, 5-7, 11-9 margin. Zieziula then defeated Colgate's Marshall Wheeler, 6-3, 6-3, in the next round to set up a meeting with Marist's Mark Santucci.