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Sports Recap
Mike Rockman of the men's tennis team became the single-season victories leader in UB's Division I history when he defeated Niagara's Erick Garcia, 6-0, 6-4, for his 25th win in 2004-05. He also defeated IPFW's Nabil Mourad Filho on Saturday for his 26th win of the year and passed Randy Rocchio for fourth place on the career wins list with 46.
Stacey Evans of the softball team earned two wins and a save in UB's four games during the week. She led the Bulls to a conference sweep at Northern Illinois, earning a save in a 2-1 win in game one and a complete-game 5-1 win in the nightcap. During the week, which also included two appearances against Canisius, she had a 0.40 ERA, allowing just one earned run in 17.1 innings.
Baseball
Niagara 2, UB 1; Niagara 4, UB 3 (10)
Miami (OH) 10, UB 3
Miami 6, UB 5
Miami 8, UB 5
UB had a rough week, dropping all five games, including a doubleheader at Niagara that included a pair of one-run decisions and a three-game conference sweep at Miami.
A run in the bottom of the sixth inning of game one and a single tally in the bottom of the 10th in the nightcap proved to be the margins as UB fell at Niagara, 2-1 and 4-3, on April 12.
Phil Vanhorne went 3-for-5 in the nightcap with an RBI and Mike Folli went 3-for-4 with a run for the Bulls. A sacrifice fly by junior designated hitter David Amaro brought in Joe Mihalics with UB's lone run in the opener.
In Friday's contest at Miami, former MAC Freshman of the Year pitcher Keith Weiser struck out a career-high 10 in 7 2/3 innings as the RedHawks held off the Bulls, 10-3.
Chris McGraw, Aaron Otto and Dan Quinn each collected an RBI in the game to account for the UB offense.
On Saturday, Miami's Brian Canada scored Eric Radley and Ryne Robinson with a two-out, bottom of the ninth-inning single down the right field line to defeat the Bulls, 6-5.
The Bulls finished the weekend series with an 8-5 loss on Sunday. Trailing 5-0, UB finally scratched a run across in the bottom of the fourth when Amaro homered to left field for his third of the year.
The Bulls fought back to within three in the sixth inning as a sacrifice fly scored Al Barbato before Quinn blasted his fifth home run of the year to close the gap to 8-5.
Softball
UB 1, Canisius 0 (8); Canisius 7, UB 2
UB 2, Northern Illinois
1; UB 5, Northern Illinois 1
UB went 3-1 last week, including a doubleheader sweep of MAC foe Northern Illinois.
UB opened with a 1-0 win in eight innings over Canisius, thanks to a game-winning RBI by senior Ann Magur, but the Golden Griffins exploded for a 7-2 win in the nightcap at Nan Harvey Field.
The first game remained scoreless until the bottom of the eighth inning when sophomore Mary Russell, who began the inning at second base according to international tiebreaker rules, moved to third on a wild pitch. Magur then drove her in with the game-winning run with a single through the left side.
Stacey Evans gave up four hits and struck out six in the complete game. The shutout is the second of the year for Evans.
After five scoreless innings in game two, the Griffs broke things open with a six-hit, seven-run sixth inning.
Against Northern Illinois, Evans earned the save in game one and the win in game two, and Laura Kor hit a two-run home run in the nightcap to highlight the offensive attack.
Tennis
MEN'S
UB 6, Niagara 1
UB 5, IPFW 2
UB posted a pair of home wins to close out the regular season. After spotting both Niagara and Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) with the opening doubles point, the Bulls rallied in singles play to down the Purple Eagles, 6-1, and the Mastodons, 5-2. UB has now won three straight and four of the last five matches.
Against Niagara, Mike Rockman became UB's single-season victories leader with his 25th win of the year. Rockman, playing second singles, rolled past Erick Garcia, 6-0, 6-4, to surpass Nick Zieziula, who posted 24 wins last season. He also scored a victory over IPFW's Nabil Mourad Filho on Saturday to pass Randy Rocchio for fourth place on the career wins list in UB's Division I history at 46.
Zieziula needed a super-tiebreaker to prevail over Niagara's Walter Garcia. Zieziula won the first set, 6-4, and then forced a second-set tiebreaker. Garcia won that tiebreaker, 9-7, to knot the match at a set apiece. In the super-tiebreaker, Zieziula scored a 10-3 win to claim the match. He had an easier time on Saturday with a straight-sets win over IPFW's Landry Nzudie.
Yules Hadisubroto, Matt Kennedy and Albert Alant also posted a pair of singles wins in their matches. Josh Liederman split his matches, defeating his Niagara opponent but falling to IPFW's Ian Leonhardt in a grueling two-set battle.
The Bulls currently are third in the six-team MAC standings. They will open the MAC Tournament in Kalamazoo, Mich., against the sixth seed, most likely IPFW, on April 28.
WOMEN'S
Marshall 7, UB 0
Miami (OH) 5, UB 2
It was a rough weekend for the Bulls, as they fell at Marshall, ranked 67th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, on Friday by a 7-0 score and at Miami (OH), 5-2, on Saturday.
Against Marshall, UB's top tandem of Andreea Novaceanu and Kristen Ortman played well against the country's 60th-ranked duo, Danielle Hock and Joelle Good, but fell by an 8-4 count. In singles play, Novaceanu was the lone Bull to win a set against her opponent.
The Bulls had better luck against Miami. UB won the top two singles matches by identical scores. Novaceanu rolled past Linda Jirouskova, 6-2, 6-2, in the number one match. At number two, Miglena Nenova also posted a 6-2, 6-2 win, topping Katrina Lomidze.
UB will conclude the regular season tomorrow at Akron.
Track and Field
Busy week for UB tracksters
UB's women's track-and-field squad won 10 events in the Bucknell Bison Open over the weekend. There was no team scoring in the meet, which featured schools from throughout Pennsylvania and New York.
Faith Thompson won two events, setting school records in both the shot put and the hammer throw.
Sarah Vance set a season-best and personal record with her victory in the discus throw at 153-6 (46.79m). Vance also finished second to Thompson in the shot put, qualifying for the NCAA regional meet.
Sprinter Stacy Downer won two individual races—the 100-meters and the 200-meters—and was part of UB's two relay winners. She anchored the 4x100-meter relay squad to a season-best time of 47.23 seconds, and opened the 4x400-meter relay as the Bulls finished in 3:51.13.
Jen Jezorski turned in a season-best and established a new personal record with her victory in the 1,500-meter run. Celestine Coney set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles, winning in 1:01.27. Freshman distance specialist Aleksandra Bykowska won the 3,000-meter run in 10:12.69. Jessica Lister tied for first with three other entrants in the pole vault. Lister cleared 11-3.75 (3.45m).
Although the UB men did not post any winners, they did finish high, with top five finishes in nine events.
While the rest of the squad was at Bucknell, senior Jenny Koeppel was on the other side of the country, competing at the Mount SAC Relays at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. Against some of the country's best athletes, Koeppel broke her own school record in the 10,000-meters with a time of 35:32.65, breaking her old mark set last year. She finished 33rd in a field of 41 runners.
At the University of Tennessee's Sea Ray Relays, multi-athletes Todd Joki and Patrice Coney put up impressive numbers. Joki finished seventh in the decathlon, while Coney was eighth in the heptathlon.
Crew
UB novice 4 rowers win Knecht Cup title
UB's novice 4 team brought home the first Knecht Cup title in school history on Sunday to highlight the weekend races on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J.
The squad finished first among 30 overall entries in the two-day competition. The Bulls easily won the title with an eight-second win over Kansas in the Grand Final on Sunday after winning heat and semifinal races on Saturday to move into the final.
The novice 8 team scored a third-place overall finish in the Grand Final as 28 crews entered the competition. UB turned in a 7:04.4 clocking in the Grand Final, finishing behind only the Princeton lightweights (6:58.2) and George Washington (6:59.2).
The lightweight 4 squad also posted a third-place overall finish in the Grand Finals, with 18 squads competing. UB finished in 8:06.9, behind Princeton (7:50.4) and Wisconsin (7:53.7).
Two other UB crews raced well in the Petite Final races. The second varsity 8 crew was second in the Petite Final to Marist and eighth overall among the 16 entries.
The varsity 8 team finished 11th overall in a 27-team field, taking fifth place in the Petite Finals.
UB will face Cincinnati and the same Kansas squad that competed in the Knecht Cup in a three-way meet on Saturday in Ohio.
Football
White 50, Blue 24
Behind the strength of 104 yards rushing and three touchdowns by redshirt freshman tailback Joe Cerminara, the White (offense) beat the Blue (defense), 50-24, in a controlled scrimmage to wrap up UB's spring practice sessions before a sizable crowd in Walter Kunz Stadium.
Prior to the game, the stadium officially was rededicated after being known as "old" UB Stadium since 1993. Walter Kunz, Ed.M. '65, Ph.D. '70, a former UB faculty member and longtime advocate and supporter of the Division of Athletics, had made a gift that helped rehabilitate the stadium and add a new artificial surface.
Earlier in the week, head coach Jim Hofher received a contract extension that will keep him on the Bulls' sidelines through the 2006 season. UB also released the 2005 schedule, which features five teams that played in bowls last year.
Highlighting the schedule will be the home opener against Big East foe Rutgers on Sept. 17, as well as the season-opener at Motor City Bowl champion Connecticut on Sept. 1, which will be televised by ESPNU.