Women's Tennis Weekly Release

Bulls On a Roll Heading Into Final Week

The University at Buffalo women’s tennis team won both its Mid-American Conference matches last week and extended its winning streak to four with a 7-0 shutout at Akron followed by a 6-1 win over a depleted Northern Illinois squad. With one weekend remaining in the regular season, the Bulls are 12-4 with a 4-2 MAC mark.

Mmmm...Bagels

Smaranda Stan

In tennis, shutting out an opponent is referred to as a “bagel” because of the round shape of both the delicatessen staple and zero. Aside from the 7-0 bageling that the Bulls handed Akron, two players also turned in bagels in their singles matches. Andreea Novaceanu (Bucharest, Romania/Emil Racovita) scored a first-set bagel over Tanya Gombera while Smaranda Stan (Stantu Gheorghe, Romania/Economic) scored a "double-bagel" victory over Laura Hemlepp, 6-0, 6-0.

The bagels were fresh again on Saturday as Miglena Nenova (Rousse, Bulgaria/Eurointellect) scored her “double-bagel”, 6-0, 6-0, over Northern Illinois’ Dora Delgadillo. Kristen Ortman (Amherst, NY/Amherst) also picked up a bagel in the first set of her 6-0, 6-3 victory over Chrissy Nagel.

Good News, Bad News for Novaceanu

Andreea Novaceanu

It was an up and down week for top player Andreea Novaceanu. She opened the week by earning the MAC’s Player of the Week award and scoring a singles victory to extend her winning streak to 11 matches. However, at Northern Illinois, the streak was stopped by freshman Jenny Edner, 6-2, 7-6. Her last singles loss prior to Saturday was on February 10 when she lost to Syracuse’s Katie Bramante. Novaceanu is 24-5 this season in singles play, the most victories in a single season by a UB player.

Closing Out the Regular Season at Home

The Bulls conclude the regular season this weekend with a pair of home matches. UB hosts second-place Miami (OH) in a key MAC showdown on Friday. They host Ball State on Saturday in the final match of the regular season. Both matches are slated for 2:00 pm starts. If the weather holds, the contests will be held outdoors at the University Tennis Club.