Zappia, David Reach Singles Finals at Cornell Invitational

ITHACA, NY – Play continued on Saturday at the Cornell Invitational with two University at Buffalo men's tennis players winning both their singles matches and advancing into Sunday's flight finals.

In the A flight, freshman Damien David survived a pair of three-set matches to reach the finals. In Saturday's quarterfinal match, he downed Cornell's Evan McElwain, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. He moved into the finals with a strong rally over Princeton's Dan Davies. After dropping the first set to Davies, 6-4,David won the final two sets in convincing fashion, 6-2, 6-0.

Travis Zappia mirrored David in the B flight with a pair of three-set victories. Zappia defeated Duquesne's Rich Robbie, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinal match. In the semifinal, Zappia scored a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 decision over Lafayette's Brandon Goldstein.

Yevgeniy Jason Shkodnik lost his B flight quarterfinal match to Kyle Berman, 6-0, 6-4. Shkodnik moved into the losers bracket and picked up a win over Chris Song of Cornell, 6-4, 6-4.

In the A flight consolation rounds, Ivan Vereshchaga and Alex Kalinin won their first matches but dropped their second contests. Vereshchaga defeated Simon Ipeker of Lafayette, 6-2, 6-4 before falling to Zhongming Chen of Cornell, 6-4, 6-4. Kalinin knocked off Doug Gallagher of Lafayette, 6-2, 6-4 then lost to Spencer Clark of Cornell, 6-4, 6-4.

Wojciech Starakiewicz was forced to withdraw from the tournament with an injury. He had won his opening round singles match on Friday.

UB was swept in the three doubles matches. In the A flight, Starakiewicz and Zappia fell to McElwain and Alex Sidney of Cornell, 8-5, while David and Vereshchaga lost to Cornell's Jason Luu and Sam Fleck, 8-5. In the B flight, Kalinin and Shkodnik lost to Alex Aleman and Robbie of Duquesne, 8-6.

Play concludes on Sunday.