Men’s Tennis Opens Play at Cornell Invitational
ITHACA, NY – The University at Buffalo men's tennis opened action at the Cornell Invitational on Friday with a pair of singles players reaching the semifinal round in their respective brackets.
Junior Wojciech Starakiewicz and sophomore Vusa Hove breezed in their two matches to reach the A-1 and A-2 singles semifinals, respectively. Starakiewicz advanced past Pete Carpenter of Duquense in the opening match. Starakiewicz won the first set, 6-3, before Carpenter retired from play. In the second round, Starakiewicz knocked off Army's Alex Holland, 6-3, 6-2. He will face Cornell's Zhongming Chen on Saturday.
Hove, in the A-2 bracket, had a similar road to Starakiewicz on Friday. Hove opened play with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Duquesne's Steve Herchko in the first round. Hove moved into the semifinals when Cornell's Evan McElwain was forced to default.
In other singles action, Alex Kalinin and Mitch Zenaty dropped opening round matches in the A-1 bracket. Kalinin fell to Fairleigh Dickinson's Dominic Henry, 6-4, 6-4 and then lost to Max Rubin of Duquesne, 6-1, 7-5. Zenaty lost to Jeremy Feldman of Cornell, 6-3, 6-3, in his opener and Jared Karson of Cornell, 6-4, 6-2, in the consolation round. After receiving a first-round bye in the B singles bracket, Jason Shkodnik lost a three-set match to Navy's Heyward Drayton in the second round, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
All three of UB's doubles tandems earned first-round bye and did not compete on Friday. Starakiewicz and Travis Zappia are in the top half of the A bracket while Zenaty and Hove are in the bottom of the bracket. Shkodnik and Kristof Custers earned a bye in the B bracket and will compete for the first time on Saturday.
Play continues through Sunday.