Men's tennis weekly release

Fall Tournament Season Begins at Princeton

The University at Buffalo, the defending Mid-American Conference regular season champions, opened the 2010-11 tournament season over the weekend at the three-day Farnsworth/Princeton Invitational. The Bulls sent six singles players and combined for three doubles duos with UB as took 12 singles matches and four doubles contests, including the C flight title.

Hove, Kalinin Sweep Doubles Flight

The C doubles tandem of Vusa Hove and Alex Kalinin went undefeated to claim the flight title at the Princeton meet. Hove and Kalinin defeated the Yale duo of Zach Dean and Tommy Ratchford, 8-5, on Sunday to claim the crown. Hove and Kalinin finished the tournament with a 2-0 doubles record after defeating Columbia's Alex Lee and John Yetimoglu, 8-4, on Saturday. Both Hove and Kalinin also reached the D flight singles championship at the tournament but the match was not played. Hove won all three of singles matches in straight sets over opponents from Fairliegh Dickinson, Penn and Princeton. Kalinin also went 3-0 in the flight but had to win his opening match against number two seed Chris Hasyn in three sets and win opening set tiebreakers in his other two matches.

Two Out of Three Ain't Bad

Singles players George Tibil and Marcelo Mazzetto both won two of their three matches over the weekend before being eliminated in their respective flight semifinals. In the B flight, Tibil scored a straight sets win over Columbia's Rajeev Deb Sen. He went to three sets in his win over Princeton's Alex Faust before falling to Penn State's Russell Bader in the semifinals. Playing as the number two seed of the C flight, Mazzetto needed three sets to knock off John Yetimoglu of Columbia in the opening round then rolled to a 6-4, 6-2 win over Ryan Kim of Princeton in the quarterfinals. 

A Nickell's Worth

Following Sunday's action, head coach Lee Nickell remarked on his team's efforts at the Princeton Invitational. "I am pleased with our effort and character this weekend," said Nickell. "To get two titles and have wins over some of the best teams in the region gives us momentum going into regionals in a few weeks."