Bulls Win Doubles Title at Princeton Invitational
PRINCETON, NJ – The University at Buffalo men's tennis team continued play on Saturday at the Princeton Invitational with a doubles tandem earning a title and one singles player advancing to Sunday's individual flight finals.
The UB doubles tandem of Ivan Vereshchaga and Travis Zappia won their championship match in the C doubles flight as they defeated Yuri Gricheno and Marco Jermesic of Fairleigh Dickinson, 8-2. Vereshchaga and Zappia, the number two seed in the flight went 2-0 as they downed the top seed on Saturday.
Advancing to singles flight final on Sunday was freshman Damien David. David, playing in the B singles flight scored a pair of wins on Saturday. In the quarterfinal round, David knocked off Penn State's Chris Young, 7-6, 6-2.David then rolled past Winston Lin of Columbia, 6-3, 6-1 to set up Sunday's championship match against Penn State's Tomas Hanzlik. The match will begin at approximately 11 am on Sunday morning.
Vusa Hove and Jason Simon lost their opening quarterfinal singles matches on Saturday but rallied to win quarterfinal consolation contests. Hove, at the C flight, fell to Columbia's Bert Vancura, 7-6, 7-5. Hove then defeated Yale's Joel Samaha, the flight's number two seed, 6-4, 7-6. Simon, playing in the D flight, lost to second-seeded Evan McElwain of Cornell in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. Simon then defeated Yale's Daniel Faierman, 6-4, 6-3.
"Today we came out with focus and performed much better as a whole," said UB head coach Lee Nickell. "I am proud of Travis and Ivan for winning their draw in doubles and we are excited for Damien to be in the finals of his first ever collegiate tournament."