Basketball

Men's

Miami (Ohio) 78, UB 68
Bowling Green 73, UB 58

Senior Darcel Williams scored a game-high 24 points and the Bulls shot 55 percent from the field, but it wasn't enough to overcome 23 UB turnovers and a season-high 28 fouls as Miami knocked off the Bulls, 78-68, on Feb. 25 in Millett Hall in Oxford.

Athletes of the Week

Nick Zieziula of the men's tennis team secured UB's 4-3 victory over nationally ranked Division III squad Rochester, winning 6-1, 6-1 at fourth singles and teaming with Randy Rocchio to take their doubles match in a 7-5 tiebreaker for the deciding point in the victory. Jennefer Brankovsky of the women's swim team earned All-Mid-American Conference, first-team honors at the MAC Championships, setting seven individual and relay records at the three-day meet. Brankovsky set school records in the 200 freestyle, 200 butterfly and 200 and 400 individual medleys. She also was part of three record relay squads. In the 200 IM, she earned a NCAA "B" cut at 2:03.01.

The Bulls closed out the regular season on Feb. 27 as junior Clement Smith scored a career-high 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 9-of-10 from the line in UB's 73-58 loss at Bowling Green.

The two games give UB a 7-11 MAC record this season. The seven MAC wins are more conference victories than the Bulls posted in the previous three years when UB went just 6-48. In addition, the 12 overall wins this season are the most since UB joined the MAC and the most since the 1997-98 season, when the Bulls posted a 15-13 overall mark in their last year in the Mid-Continent Conference.

Women's

Miami (Ohio) 80, UB 65
Northern Illinois 56, UB 41 (MAC tournament first round)

UB battled for a full 40 minutes, but was unable to snap its losing streak in the regular-season finale Feb. 26 in Alumni Arena, falling to the visiting Miami RedHawks, 80-65.

The Bulls opened the 2002 Kraft Mid-American Conference Tournament on Saturday with another low-scoring game. This time, the Northern Illinois Huskies came out on top, 56-41, over the Bulls in first-round action in DeKalb, Ill. UB ended the season at 9-19 overall.

Swimming

Men's

Bulls finish ninth at ECACs

UB swimmers turned in 18 lifetime bests in the three-day ECAC Championships in Pittsburgh as the Bulls placed ninth among 30 scoring teams with 146 points.

Freshman Aviv Oren turned in a lifetime best with his fifth-place finish in 58.19 in the 100 breaststroke to lead the squad.

Women's

UB places fifth in MAC meet

The Bulls completed their most successful MAC Championships with a fifth-place finish, scoring 299 points. Miami (Ohio) won the team title.

Diving coach Kara Sixbury was named MAC Diving Coach of the Year by her peers as the Bulls dramatically improved their team diving scores from last season.

Indoor Track and Field

Squads finish out indoor season

Both teams completed the indoor season at the ECAC/IC4A Championships in Boston.

In the women's ECAC Championships, Meagan Rogers tied for fourth in the pentathlon, while Melissa Burrows set a new school record of 17:25.22 in the 5000 meters.

In the men's IC4A meet, Byron McKinney finished fourth in the shot put to lead the Bulls.

Baseball

Southern Mississippi 14, UB 5; SMU 18, UB 6; UB 8, SMU 5

The Bulls opened the 2002 season with a three-game swing against Conference USA powerhouse Southern Mississippi.

In the opener on Friday, which was suspended in the fifth inning due to rain and resumed on Saturday, the Bulls fell to defeat, 14-5. Starting pitcher Brendan Dunford was saddled with the loss. USM followed with an 18-6 win in the regularly schedule game on Saturday, scoring five runs in the first inning. Freshman centerfielder John Boom cracked a three-run homer to lead the Bulls' offense.

The Bulls avoided the sweep by taking an 8-5 win Sunday as junior catcher Brandon DiCesare went 3-of-5 at the plate with two doubles and four RBIs.

Softball

Charleston Southern 7, UB 6 (9 innings)

Weather played a role in UB's season-opening tournament in Charleston, S.C., last weekend. The Bulls managed to get one game in, but fell to Charleston Southern, 7-6, in nine innings. Kelly Malone and Breanne Nasti had home runs for the Bulls.

Tennis

Men's

UB 4, Rochester 3

UB pulled out a tough road win with a hard-fought, 4-3 win against nationally ranked Rochester.

Securing the fourth point for the Bulls was freshman sensation Nick Zieziula, who defeated Dan Schoenherr at the fourth singles spot, 6-1, 6-1. Other winners in the singles competition included senior Fery Kasiman and Justin Brtko.

The best match of the day was the second doubles match in which the Bulls' "rock and roll" duo of Randy Rochhio and Zieziula captured the critical doubles point by winning a close, 7-5 tiebreaker.