WOMEN'S TENNIS

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BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo women's tennis program claimed its first-ever Mid-American Conference victory with a 5-2 win over Akron, Friday afternoon at the Village Glen Tennis Center. The Bulls notched wins at first, fourth, fifth and sixth singles and at second and third doubles.

UB is now 3-11 overall and 1-4 in MAC matches, while Akron moves to 3-10 overall while going 0-5 in conference play.

"The entire team has been working hard since January to improve on and off the court," said head coach Kathy Twist. "They have been working on improving their play and their mental skills, and it showed today. They stayed calm and made good shot selections.

"We can only move up in this conference and it starts with our win today we are going to continue to climb each week."

. UB received wins by default at third doubles and at sixth singles to start the match. Freshman Lisa Wittman (Cheektowaga, NY/Cheektowaga) and junior Anne Schule (Snyder, NY/Amherst) were credited with the third-doubles victory, while junior Kendra Pyke (Watertown, NY/Watertown) notched the win at sixth singles.

The remaining doubles were split. Akron's first-doubles duo of Arianna Rojas-Serpa and Karyn Ebelberger defeated sophomore Karen Maynard (Poughkeepsie, NY/Spackenkill) and junior Shani Amarasinghe (Patchogue, NY/Patchogue-Medford) by a score of 9-7.

Juniors Jennifer Wong (Penfield, NY/Penfield) and Pyke secured the doubles point for the Bulls with an 8-4 victory over Sara Hirschy and Melissa Emich.

After the forfeit at sixth singles, UB closed out the victory with wins in three of the five remaining singles matches.

Maynard notched a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Rojas-Serpa at first singles.

Akron claimed second and third singles. Amarasinghe lost 6-2, 6-3 to Ebelberger at second singles and at third singles, Schule dropped a 6-1, 6-0 match to Rachael Stein.

With a 6-0, 6-2 victory at fourth singles, over Hirschy, Wong recorded UB's first-ever individual match win. Last season in a 6-1 loss to Northern Illinois, Schule picked up a victory by injury default.

Junior Meaghan Partelow (Lyons, NY/Lyons) closed out the match for the Bulls at fifth singles. Her 6-3, 6-4 victory over Emich was UB's third singles victory on the day and combined with the doubles point, gave the Bulls the overall win.

UB's next competitions are on the road Friday, April 13, against Northern Illinois and Saturday, April 14, against Western Michigan.