Women's Tennis Weekly Release

Bulls Roll Past Dukes

On Saturday, the University at Buffalo women’s tennis team cruised to a 7-0 non-conference victory at Duquesne in their lone match of the weekend to improve the Bulls' record to 5-1.

Doubles Opens Match With Strong Showings

Andreea Novaceanu

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 needed a 7-5 tiebreaker victory to claim the 9-8 decision.

Ortman Needs Extras, No Problem For Remaining Singles

Kristen Ortman

In singles play, 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 defeating Sailer, 6-1, 7-6 (3) and Stan downing 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.

Purple Eagles Invade Village Glen

The Bulls are at home this Sunday as they host Niagara at noon at the Village Glen Tennis Center in Williamsville. This is the second home match that the Bulls have hosted at the Village Glen, after UB rolled past Cleveland State, 7-0, on February 5. Niagara heads into the Western New York matchup with a 4-4 record, after a 4-2 victory at Loyola (MD) on Sunday.