Bulls Conclude Play at ITA Regional Tournament
ITHACA, NY – The University at Buffalo men's tennis team concluded play on Sunday afternoon at the ITA Northeast Regional Tournament at Cornell University with the Bulls' lone remaining entrant eliminated in the third round.
Freshman Damien David dropped a third round decision to fifth-seeded Vasko Mladenov of St. John's, 6-3, 6-4. Mladenov, a junior transfer from the University of Texas, ranked No. 833 in the ATP men's rankings and won the A flight title at the Princeton/Farnsworth Classic earlier this season. David reached the championship match in the B flight at the Princeton tournament.
Although the Bulls sent a school best five players to this season's regional tournament, only two scored wins as freshman Ivan Vereshchaga went 1-1 in the qualifying round and David scored a victory on Saturday in his second round match. Alex Kalinin was eliminated in his first qualifying round match while Vusa Hove and Wojciech Starakiewicz fell in their opening matches in the main draw.
"We have made it our goal to be a dominant team in the region and we found out this weekend we have a long way to go," said head coach Lee Nickell. "We are going back to the drawing board to work on closing out leads and will be ready for our last tournament at Cornell."
The Bulls return to Ithaca for the Cornell Invitational starting November 4.