Women's Tennis Falls at Syracuse

Kristen Ortman

SYRACUSE, NY - After starting with a 3-0 record in dual meet play, the University at Buffalo women's tennis team suffered its first loss of the season, a 6-1 decision to Big East member Syracuse at the Drumlins Tennis Club in Syracuse. The Bulls are now 3-1 while the Orange are 1-2.

The match opened with Syracuse sweeping the doubles contests from the Bulls. At number one, UB's duo of Andreea Novaceanu (Bucharest, Romania/Emil Racovita) and Tina Jacob (Singapore/Raffles JC) fell to Victoria Vaynberg and Catherine Zawadzki,ranked 11th in the East Region by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, 8-3. In the closest of the three, UB's Kristen Ortman (Amherst, NY/Amherst) and Natalie Dean (Feilding, New Zealand/Palmerton North) dropped a 9-8 decision to Katie Bramante and Wei-Ming Leong, falling 7-4 in the tiebreaker. At number three, UB's Miglena Nenova (Rousse, Bulgaria/Eurointellect) and Katrin Fischer (Ternitz, Austria/Borg) fell, 8-2, to Ashley Lipton and Carolina Huignard.

UB's lone victory in the match came at second singles as Ortman rolled past Zawadzki, 6-2, 6-4, upping her individual record to 11-2 in singles play this season. UB also had two matches decided by third-set super-tiebreakers, falling in both contests after winning the opening set. At number one, Nenova won her opening set over Vaynberg, 6-4, but was unable to seal the victory, dropping a 6-1 decision in the second set and the super-tiebraker, 10-6. Dean, at fifth singles, opened with a 6-2 first set victory over Lipton, but her Syracuse opponent tied the match with a 6-4 win the second set. The 10-point super-tiebreaker was extended as far as possible with Dean succumbing to the 10-8 loss.

The remainder of the matches were decided in straight sets. Novaceanu, at number three, fell to Bramante, 6-4, 6-3, and Fischer, at number four, was defeated by Maria Vasilyeva, 6-3, 6-3. At number six, Jacob had her six-match winning streak stopped as she fell to Zeljka Juricek, 6-3, 6-1.

The Bulls return to the courts Saturday in a neutral-site match against Colgate at Syracuse's Drumlins Tennis Club at 4:00 pm.

Syracuse 6, Buffalo 1

Doubles

1 Victoria Vaynberg/Catherine Zawadzki (SU) d. Andreea Novaceanu/Tina Jacob (UB), 8-3

2 Katie Bramante/Wei-Ming Leong (SU) d. Kristen Ortman/Natalie Dean (UB), 9-8 (4)

3 Ashley Lipton/Carolina Huignard (SU) d. Miglena Nenova/Katrin Fischer (UB), 8-2

Singles

1 Victoria Vaynberg (SU) d. Miglena Nenova (UB), 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-6)

2 Kristen Ortman (UB) d. Catherine Zawadzki (SU), 6-2, 6-4

3 Katie Bramante (SU) d. Andreea Novaceanu (UB), 6-4, 6-3

4 Maria Vasilyeva (SU) d. Katrin Fischer (UB), 6-3, 6-3

5 Ashley Lipton (SU) d. Natalie Dean (UB), 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8)

6 Zeljka Juricek (SU) d. Tina Jacob (UB), 6-3, 6-1