University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 25, 2004

Wrestling

Cerminara Earns All-America Honors

Junior Kyle Cerminara earned the first-ever Division I All-America honors for a UB male athlete with his performance at last weekend's NCAA Championships in St. Louis. Cerminara, who wrestles in the 197-pound weight class, went 4-3 at the tournament, earning an eighth-place finish. That was the highest ever by a UB wrestler at the Division I NCAA Championships.

UB's two other wrestlers who qualified for the NCAA Championships—freshman 125-pounder Mark McKnight and senior 174-pounder Ed Pawlak—both lost during the All-America Round. McKnight went 2-2 at the tournament, while Pawlak went 3-2.

The Bulls' 11.5 team points earned them a 33rd place finish in the 72-team field. Oklahoma State won the tournament with 123.5 points. Previously, UB's best finish at the Division I NCAA Championships was 48th in 2001.

Baseball

Coppin State 11, UB 10
Delaware 11, UB 0
UB 13, UMBC 8
Towson 10, UB 3
UB 9, Towson 6
UMBC 6, UB 4

UB went 2-4 on the spring-break trip to Maryland and Delaware.

UB opened the trip with a heartbreaking, 11-10, loss at Coppin State. The Bulls scored three runs in the eighth and six runs in the ninth inning to erase an 8-1 deficit and take a 10-8 lead against the Eagles. However, UB allowed three runs in the bottom of the ninth to fall, 11-10. Andrew Wengert went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored to lead the UB offense.

Three Delaware pitchers combined to hold UB to one hit and blanked the Bulls, 11-0, on March 18. The Blue Hens pounded out 13 hits, including four doubles and a home run. The Bulls' lone hit was a sixth-inning single off the bat of Joe Mihalics.

A day after being held to only one hit in a loss to Delaware, the Bulls tied a school record with 24 hits in a 13-8 win over UMBC on Friday afternoon. Nine UB players registered at least two hits and six players had three hits on the afternoon.

On Saturday, the Bulls split a doubleheader with Towson at Schuerholz Park, dropping game one, 10-3, but rebounding to win game two, 9-6.

In game one, Towson pounded out three home runs to score 10 runs on only seven hits. The Bulls tallied three runs on seven hits. In game two, the Bulls fell behind 4-1 after two innings. UB cut the lead to 4-3 in the fourth inning following a two-run double by Brian Zelasko. The Tigers responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 6-3 lead. However, the Bulls exploded for six runs in the top of the seventh inning.

The trip concluded on Sunday against UMBC. Buffalo had a 4-0 lead in the fifth inning against the Retrievers, only to see the hosts rally for a 6-4 victory.

Softball

Indiana 2, UB 1
UB 1, Dartmouth 0
Southern Utah 4, UB 3
UB 7, San Diego 4
San Diego State 6, UB 0

UB moved to 8-11 overall on the season with a 2-3 mark at the San Diego Classic, co-hosted by San Diego and San Diego State. The Bulls opened the tournament with a 2-1 loss to Indiana before rebounding for a 1-0 win over Dartmouth. On Saturday, the Bulls fell to Southern Utah by a 4-3 score then picked up a 7-4 win over San Diego. On Sunday, UB was shut out by San Diego State by a 6-0 score in its final game of the tournament.

Against Indiana, the Hoosiers took a 1-0 lead with a run in the first when Lauren Hines was hit by a pitch with bases loaded. The Bulls tied the score in the bottom of the fourth inning on a sacrifice hit by senior Allison Round that scored senior Marce Ross, who had led off the inning with a bunt single. Indiana scored the game-winning run in the top of the seventh on an RBI-single.

The Bulls scored the lone run of the game against Dartmouth in the third inning on an RBI-single by senior Breanne Nasti that scored Ross.

Doubles by Nasti in the first inning and Ross in the second inning each drove in runs to give the Bulls an early 2-0 lead against Southern Utah. The Bulls went up 3-0 in the bottom of the fifth when a single by junior Ann Magur plated Ross before Southern Utah stormed back with one run in the sixth and three runs in the seventh to steal the victory.

The Bulls rebounded for a 7-4 win over host San Diego in Saturday's nightcap. The Bulls went up 3-0 after two innings, with a triple by Nasti and a groundout by Ross each driving in runs and Ross also scoring on a wild pitch. San Diego scored two runs in the bottom of the third, but the Bulls then put four runs across the plate in the fourth. San Diego scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth on two infield singles, but the Bulls were able to hold on behind the pitching of Stacey Evans, who came on in relief in the seventh to earn her first save of the year. Freshman Sophie Barstad earned the win.

On Sunday, Buffalo was shut out by San Diego State by a 6-0 score. SDSU pitcher Celena Velasquez scattered five hits and struck out six in the complete-game victory. San Diego State scored four runs in the first inning and added single tallies in the fourth and fifth.

The Bulls will face Canisius College in a doubleheader at 2 p.m. today at Canisius' Demske Sports Complex.

Outdoor Track and Field

Bulls open season at Ram Invitational

The 2004 outdoor track-and-field season began for UB with the Ram Invitational at Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday.

UB athletes won nine events at the non-scoring meet, with the women taking six and the men three. Leading the women's efforts was middle distance runner Allison Laske, who won the 1500-meter run in 4:35.79, less than a second off the UB school record set last season by Christina Keck. Laske also combined with Stacy Downer, Celestine Coney and Vashone Wallace to win the 4x400 relay in 3:49.61.

Three UB women won field events. Sarah Vance took first in the shot put with a toss of 43-9 (13.33m). Bev Weyer won the discus at 135-11 (41.44m). Jennifer Anderson was victorious in the triple jump at 38-5.50 (11.72m). On the track, Jenny Koeppel took first in the 3,000-meter run in 10:07.46.

On the men's side, Todd Joki placed first in the 110 hurdles in 14.66 seconds. Todd Ludden won the 3,000-meter run in 8:49.59. Dan Simpson won the pole vault at 14-5.25 (4.40m).

Rayshon Higgins placed second in the triple jump at 49-8.25 (15.14m). His distance qualified him for regional competition at the end of the season.

Tennis

WOMEN'S

UB 7, Wisconsin-Green Bay 0
UB 6, Tampa 3
UB 5, Dayton 2

UB completed its three-match spring break trip with a perfect 3-0 mark, dropping Horizon League member Wisconsin-Green Bay (7-0), Division II Tampa (6-3) and Atlantic Ten member Dayton (5-2). The Bulls are now 7-4 overall.

In the opener of the trip against Wisconsin-Green Bay, the Bulls had little trouble. UB won the doubles point by claiming the top two matches. At number one, the team of Kristen Ortman and Miglena Nenova defeated Alexis Watson and Heather Harding, 8-1. The number two team of Erica Zielinski and Lisa Wittman downed Amanda Dworak and Amy Meissner, 8-5. The lone blemish on the day was a loss by the number three doubles team of Katrin Fischer and Sheri Ugowski (to Amber Murdoch and Kristin Leeder, 8-2.

The Bulls rolled in the singles matches, winning all six in straight sets.

Against Tampa, the Bulls took two of the three doubles contests, then took four of the six singles matches, including the top three.

The Bulls needed to rally against the Flyers in the concluding match. Dayton won the doubles point to take an early 1-0 lead on the Bulls. UB took the top doubles match as the team of Nenova and Ortman defeated Erin Kirkland and Courtney McDowell, 8-2. Dayton took the number two and three matches.

The Bulls rallied to win the match with five of six singles victories, taking all but the number five match.

The Bulls will return to Mid-American Conference action with matches at Northern Illinois and Western Michigan next weekend.