Women's Tennis Shuts Out Duquesne, 7-0

Bulls improve dual-meet mark to 5-1 with victory over Dukes

Natalie Dean

PITTSBURGH, PA - The University at Buffalo women's tennis team cruised to a 7-0 non-conference victory at Duquesne to improve the Bulls' record to 5-1.

UB opened the match with a clean sweep of the doubles contests over the Dukes (3-2). At number one, Kristen Ortman (Amherst, NY/Amherst) and Natalie Dean (Feilding, New Zealand/Palmerston North) combined to down Jacqueline Hughes and Rebecca Poole, 8-4. It was the first time this season that the Ortman and Dean combination had played first doubles. UB's number two team of Andreea Novaceanu (Bucharest, Romania/Emil Racovita) and Tina Jacob (Singapore/Raffles JC) knocked off Johanna Bezjak and Alexandria Albano, 8-5. UB's number three doubles team of Miglena Nenova (Rousse, Bulgaria/Eurointellect) and Smaranda Stan (Stantu Gheorghe, Romania/Economic) were stretched to the limit in their first pairing of the season. The UB duo need a 7-5 tiebreaker victory to claim the 9-8 decision.

Kristen Ortman

The Bulls also rolled in the singles competitions. Ortman, playing number two, endured a grueling match, splitting the opening sets against Hughes with each player taking a 7-5 victory. In the ten-point super-tiebreaker, Ortman prevailed but needed a few extra points downing Hughes, 13-11.

The five remaining matches were all decided in straight sets for the Bulls, although two needed second-set tiebreakers. At number one, Nenova defeated Bezjak, 6-3, 6-2, while Novaceanu rolled to an easy 6-2, 6-1 win over Poole at number three. The number four and five matches went to second-set tiebreakers with Dean defeated Sailer, 6-1, 7-6 (3) and Stan downed Albano, 6-3, 7-6 (3), respectively. At number six, Jacob had little trouble in defeating Alicia McNamara, 6-2, 6-0.

The teams also played a singles exhibition match with UB's Katrin Fischer (Ternitz, Austria/Borg) winning an eight-game pro-set match over Abigail Bell, 8-5.

The Bulls host Niagara next Sunday, March 5 at noon at the Village Glen Tennis Center in Williamsville.

Buffalo 7, Duquesne 0

Doubles

1 Kristen Ortman/Natalie Dean (UB) d. Jacqueline Hughes/Rebecca Poole (DU), 8-4

2 Andreea Novaceanu/Tina Jacob (UB) d. Johanna Bezjak/Alexandria Albano (DU), 8-5

3 Miglena Nenova/Smaranda Stan (UB) d. Andrea Sailer/Ciara McDermott (DU), 9-8 (5)

Singles

1 Miglena Nenova (UB) d. Johanna Bezjak (DU), 6-3, 6-2

2 Kristen Ortman (UB) d. Jacqueline Hughes (DU) 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (13-11)

3 Andreea Novacenau (UB) d. Rebecca Poole (DU), 6-2, 6-1

4 Natalie Dean (UB) d. Andrea Sailer (DU), 6-1, 7-6 (3)

5 Smaranda Stan (UB) d. Alexandria Albano (DU), 6-3, 7-6 (3)

6 Tina Jacob (UB) d. Alicia McNamara (DU), 6-2, 6-0

E Katrin Fischer (UB) d. Abigail Bell (DU), 8-5

02/25/2006