University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 2, 2006

Basketball

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Ohio 85, UB 72
UB 81, Bowling Green 67

UB split a pair of important Mid-American Conference contests but remained in the thick of the fight to secure a home playoff game for the upcoming MAC Tournament. UB dropped an 85-72 decision to Ohio on Feb. 22 in the Convocation Center, the Bulls' third straight loss. UB then rebounded with a convincing, 81-67 victory over Bowling Green in Alumni Arena on Sunday.

Against Ohio, the Bobcats came out of the gates running and built a 30-12 lead midway through the first half and led, 43-29, at the break.

Ohio missed only six shots in the second half while shooting 64.7 percent from the field and built its lead to 24 points with 14:33 remaining. The Bulls tried to make a run. A three-pointer by Eric Moore cut the Ohio advantage to 15 points with 5:54 remaining. A steal and layup by Calvin Cage cut the lead to 12 points with 1:05 remaining, but was as close as the Bulls could get.

With the help of double-doubles from both Yassin Idbihi and Mario Jordan, the Bulls downed Bowling Green, 81-67,int Alumni Arena on Sunday afternoon. Both players scored 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

UB (17-11, 7-9 MAC) established successful interior play early and jumped out to an 8-0 lead. A layup by Jordan gave the Bulls a 12-4 lead. But the Falcons bounced back and outscored the Bulls, 17-2, to take a 21-14 lead with 10:30 left in the first half. UB responded with a 9-0 run of its own to take a 23-21 lead with 8:01 left in the half. The Bulls built their first-half lead to as many as eight points before Bowling Green cut the UB advantage to 37-34 at the half.

As they did in the first half, the Bulls were able to get out of the gates fast in the second half and a Parnell Smith layup capped a 12-0 scoring run to start the second stanza that gave the Bulls a 49-34 lead with 15:12 remaining. A layup and free throw by Roderick Middleton with 9:46 left gave the Bulls a 17-point lead-their largest of the game.

The Bulls will travel to Miami (OH) for the regular season finale on Saturday.

WOMEN'S

UB 84, Ohio 7
UB 72, Akron 62

UB ended its shooting woes in style, defeating Ohio, 84-77, on Feb. 21 in the Convocation Center, then knocking off Akron, 72-62, in Alumni Arena on Saturday. The perfect 2-0 week gave the Bulls a home game for this weekend's first round of the MAC Tournament.

Against the Bobcats, UB's 52-point second half was its highest point output on the season for a half. The Bulls finished with four players in double figures, including two reaching the 20-point mark in the same game for the first time since the 2004 season. Senior Brooke Meunier scored a team-high 23 points, 17 of them coming in the second half. Sophomore Heather Turner added 20 points for Buffalo, along with six rebounds. Also finishing in double figures were sophomores Stephanie Bennett and Flynn Pyykkonen, who both finished with 13 points.

On Saturday's Senior Day, Meunier, the lone senior, didn't disappoint setting a career-high in scoring with 28 points.

The Zips came into the game looking for an upset and got off to a fast start, taking a 12-2 lead in the game. However, the Bulls rattled off eight straight points and finally took the lead on a layup by Turner at the 5:37 mark of the first half. The two teams traded baskets for the remainder of the first half, but five straight UB points in the final 1:20 of the first half gave the Bulls the lead for good.

The Bulls clinched third place in the MAC East, their highest finish since the 2002-03 season, the last time UB hosted a first-round tournament game. The Bulls will host the sixth-seed from the MAC West, Toledo, at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Indoor Track and Field

Bulls win four titles at MAC Championships

UB finished one of the most successful MAC Indoor Track and Field Championships in team history over the weekend with four MAC titles and three second-place finishes. UB's men scored 63 points to place fifth among six teams. In the women's meet, the Bulls placed ninth at 41.50 points.

The UB men swept the horizontal jumps as Roy Richards broke his own school record to win the long jump, while Rayshon Higgins won the triple jump. Richards won the long jump with a leap of 24-9.75 (7.56m) to eclipse his 2004 record by 4.25 inches. The distance also improved on his IC4A qualification mark for this week's meet in Boston by nearly seven inches and provisionally qualified him for the NCAA Indoor Championships. It was the first long jump title in UB's MAC history and earned Richards a spot on the All-MAC First Team.

Higgins, meanwhile, claimed UB's second-ever MAC triple jump title with a jump of 50-1.25 (15.27m) and gained an All-MAC First-Team spot.

On the women's side, Jen Jezorski claimed an individual and relay MAC title in the two days of competition. Jezorski opened the meet by combining with Mary Veith, Stacy Downer and Kate Kohout to become UB's first-ever MAC champions in a relay event. The Bulls completed the race in 11:46.48 as the foursome earned first team All-MAC honors. On Saturday, Jezorski won the mile in 4:53.39 for UB's first women's individual indoor championship in a track event, leading the race wire-to-wire.

The Bulls also posted three second-place finishes, with all athletes picking up All-MAC second-team honors. The men's 1,600-meter relay team of Rob McRae, Brian Heim, Paul Riley and Bryan Weinstein placed second in 3:20.16, after leading nearly the entire race.

Dan McKenna finished second in the mile in 4:13.82. Women's pole vaulter Jessica Lister earned a second-place finish, clearing 12-8.25 (3.87m) to finish behind Miami's Sarah Landau.

Swimming

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Lynch wins diving titles at ECAC meet

It was a successful ECAC Championship meet for the UB swimming-and-diving program as the Bulls returned to the top 10 after last season's stumble to place eighth in a field of 19 scoring teams. UB scored 183 points in the three-day meet, while Johns Hopkins won the team title with 541 points. The Bulls have reached the top 10 in nine of the last 10 years.

Freshman Cassidy Lynch captured both diving events and earned the ECAC's Diver of the Year award. Lynch began the meet on Friday with a UB record to win the three-meter title, turning in a six-dive total of 333.40 points to eclipse Justin Monin's 328.05 mark set in 1995. On Sunday, he posted a six-dive total of 284.00 points to capture the one-meter diving crown.

The Bulls were buoyed in the standings by their relay teams, which reached the championship final in four of the five races. UB's highest finish came on Saturday when the 800-yard freestyle relay team placed fifth. UB's foursome of Jeff Hurst, Kevin Schuster, Kevin Gatley and Luke Adams posted a season-best time for the Bulls in 6:56.21, slicing three seconds off the previous best set at Akron's SummaCare Invitational in December.

The Bulls will participate in the MAC championships next weekend in Athens, Ohio.

WOMEN'S

Bulls finish eighth at MAC championships

UB finished in eighth place at last weekend's Mid-American Conference Championship, held at Akron's Ocasek Natatorium. The team's total point tally of 180.5 was the lowest in the annual MAC meet since entering the conference in the 1999-2000 season. Eastern Michigan took top honors to claim its first-ever MAC Championship in team history with 637.5 points.

Despite the eighth-place overall finish, UB swimmers achieved a total of 34 individual season-best times, including 13 team-best times.

Junior Kahla Walkinshaw coasted her way into contention in two events. She placed fifth in both the 100 and 200-yard butterfly finals in times of 57.54 and 2:05.01, respectively, each UB season bests. Walkinshaw also participated in the UB season-best runs in both the 400-yard medley relay (3:54.51) and 400-yard freestyle relay (3:33.41).

Freshman Rachel Sorg had an impressive weekend in her first MAC Championships, finishing sixth in the 100-yard backstroke (58.44) and seventh in the 200-yard backstroke (2:05.91), posting UB season-bests in both events.

Baseball

Maryland-Eastern Shore 15, UB 2
UB 11, UMES 3
UMES 3, UB 1

Both UB and Maryland-Eastern Shore (UMES) showed offensive muscle last weekend as the teams split a doubleheader. UMES took the first game, 15-2, while UB rebounded with an 11-3 win in the nightcap.

On Sunday, both teams tangled in an old-fashioned pitchers' duel to wrap the three-game set. UMES' Justin Hoban delivered the knockout blow with a one-out triple in the bottom of the eighth to lift the team to a 3-1 win in the rubber match at Hawks Stadium.

On Saturday, UB's freshman infield duo of second baseman Brad Agustin and third baseman Jacob Rosenbeck each had breakout three-hit games, with Agustin going 3-for-5 with an RBI in game one and Rosenbeck finishing 3-for-4 with two hits and two RBIs in the nightcap.

Senior David Amaro paced the second-game rebound effort for the Bulls, as he went 4-for-5 with three RBIs and a run, while senior Sean McWilliams continued his hot pitching with a six-inning, four-hit, two-run start for his first win of the season. Freshman center fielder James Piazza went 2-for-3 with three RBIs in his first collegiate start.

Sunday's late-inning heroics by the Hawks spoiled a great outing from sophomore southpaw Shane Wolf, who went 7 1/3 innings, allowing just six hits and two earned runs. The finesse pitcher walked three and struck out seven, but took the hard-luck loss to drop his record to 0-2.

UB (2-3 overall) will look to get back in the win column when it travels to Huntington, WVa. for a series with the Conference USA's Marshall on Friday.

Softball

UB 10, St. John's 6
Notre Dame 1, UB 0
UB 1, Memphis 0
St. John's 11, UB 6

UB got off to a good start to the 2006 season as it split its four games during the Florida International Golden Panther Invite in Miami. On Friday, the UB offense exploded in a 10-6 victory over St. John's, but the bats were silenced in the second game, a 1-0 loss against Notre Dame. The Bulls rebounded on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Memphis before falling to St. John's, 11-6, to go 2-2 for the weekend.

In Friday's opener, the Bulls took full advantage of their two-out at bats against St. John's, as all 10 runs came after the second out was recorded in the inning. Junior Sophie Barstad got the job done from both the mound and the plate, pitching UB to the win as well as taking had a game-high five RBIs, including three during a six-run fourth inning.

The second game turned out to be a pitcher's duel as sophomore Margo Schramm pitched a complete game three-hitter, but gave up one run in third inning for the loss.

In Saturday's first game, Barstad (2-0) pitched a complete-game five-hitter for her fourth career shutout to down Memphis, as the Bulls' defense stepped up behind the hurler to account for 19 putouts in the game. Barstad helped her cause by singling up the middle through the pitchers' box to bring home the game's only run.

In the second game, the Bulls responded to five St, John's runs in the first two innings with six of their own, but the Red Storm pulled away with five runs in the next two innings to seal the 11-6 win, avenging Friday's loss.

The final round of the tournament on Sunday was cancelled due to rain.

Barstad and senior Lauren Picciano were named to the All-Tournament team.

Tennis

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Western Michigan 7, UB 0
Cornell 5, UB 1

The Bulls kicked off their Mid-American Conference schedule on Friday at the Village Glen Tennis Center in Williamsville, but fell, 7-0, to league rival Western Michigan, ranked 70th by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. UB then dropped a match to Ivy League member and 74th-ranked Cornell, 5-1.Ttime constraints and Cornell's travel schedule allowed for only six singles matches to be played.

The lone victory for the Bulls (3-4 overall) on Friday came in the Cornell match as junior Mike Rockman defeated Cornell's Joshua Goldstein, 6-2, 6-4 at the number two spot.

The Bulls will host Duquesne at 6 p.m. March 11.

WOMEN'S

UB 7, Duquesne 0

UB cruised to a 7-0 non-conference victory at Duquesne to improve its record to 5-1.

UB opened the match with a clean sweep of the doubles contests over the Dukes (3-2). At number one, Kristen Ortman and Natalie Dean combined to down Jacqueline Hughes and Rebecca Poole, 8-4. It was the first time this season that the Ortman and Dean combination had played first doubles. UB's number two team of Andreea Novaceanu and Tina Jacob knocked off Johanna Bezjak and Alexandria Albano, 8-5. UB's number three doubles team of Miglena Nenova and Smaranda Stan were stretched to the limit in their first pairing of the season. The UB duo needed a 7-5 tiebreaker victory to claim the 9-8 decision.

The Bulls also rolled in the singles competitions. Ortman, playing number two, endured a grueling match, splitting the opening sets against Hughes with each player taking a 7-5 victory. In the 10-point super-tiebreaker, Ortman prevailed, but needed a few extra points downing Hughes, 13-11.

The five remaining matches were all decided in straight sets for the Bulls, although two needed second-set tiebreakers. At number four, Dean defeated Sailer, 6-1, 7-6 (3) and at number five, Stan downed Albano, 6-3, 7-6 (3), respectively. The Bulls will host Niagara at noon on Sunday at the Village Glen Tennis Center