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Sports Recap

Published: March 30, 2006

Athletes of the Week

Mike Rockman of the men's tennis team defeated Manhattan's Zolton Bus in a marathon two-set match, 7-5, 6-4.

Andreea Novaceanu of the women's tennis team broke her own school record by notching her 20th and 21st singles victories over the weekend to become UB's single-season leader in the category.

Baseball

Central Michigan 5, UB 0
Central Michigan 8, UB 0
Central Michigan 12, UB 0

Central Michigan's pitching staff may have had a rough going during the early part of the season, but entering the Mid-American Conference schedule, it seems CMU starters Ty Dunham, Josh Collmenter and Kurt Lauscher have hit their strides, pitching the Chippewas to 5-0, 8-0 and 12-0 wins, respectively, over UB at Amherst Audubon Field.

On Saturday, only UB freshmen Jacob Rosenbeck and James Piazza managed singles for the Bulls as they each had one in both games.

Using an almost identical start to his 2005 game against the Bulls, senior Wallace Watch nominee Dunham posted a two-hitter in the first game to help lift the Chippewas to a 5-0 win.

In game two, the UB offense never heated up against Collmenter, who allowed two hits in eight shutout innings, struck out 14 and walked two.

On Sunday, Lauscher pitched seven innings of four-hit baseball to send the Bulls to their third straight loss by shutout, as Central Michigan wrapped up a sweep with a 12-0 win.

This is the first time in the 46-year history of UB baseball that the team has gone three games in a row without a run.

Softball

Penn State 6, UB 0
California 13, UB 0
East Carolina 4, UB 0
Coastal Carolina 8, UB 0

UB failed to score a run in the four games at the East Carolina State Farm Pirate Classic. UB dropped decisions to Penn State, nationally ranked California, East Carolina and Coastal Carolina. The Bulls, who are fighting injuries are now 8-17 overall and have dropped seven of their last nine games.

Against Penn State, the Bulls picked up four hits, three from Marcy Hansen and one from freshman Ashley Kanavy.

Despite the loss, the Bulls got a good pitching performance from junior Sophie Barstad, who picked up her eighth loss of the season. The Buffalo defense had a hard time supporting Barstad. The majority of the PSU runs were unearned.

On Saturday, the Bulls met a red-hot California team who entered the tournament off a victory against the Chinese National Team. The Bears, the second nationally ranked team the Bulls have faced this season, scored 13 runs, which is tied for the second most they have scored in a game this season.

Against East Carolina, junior Mary Russell went 2-for-3 on the night to lead the Bulls in the hitting department. Kanavy, Hansen and Laura Kor also picked up hits.

On Sunday, UB met a Coastal Carolina team that also was looking for its first win in the tournament. A strong Chanticleer pitching performance left the Bulls with just one hit in the contest-from sophomore Kerry Cafazzo.

The Bulls will open up their home season tomorrow when they begin MAC play against Bowling Green at Nan Harvey Field.

Tennis

MEN'S

Manhattan 5, UB 2

UB dropped a 5-2 non-conference decision to Manhattan College Saturday night at the Village Glen Tennis Center, snapping the Bulls' five-match winning streak. They are now 8-5.

The Bulls picked up a pair of singles victories in the contest. At second singles, junior Mike Rockman played a marathon two-setter against Manhattan's Zolton Bus, defeating the Romanian, 7-5, 6-4 to gain UB's first point of the match.

At sixth singles, freshman Fred Duncan rallied past Mathias Kruttli, 6-3, 6-3. Duncan trailed 3-2 in both the first and second sets before winning the final four games in both sets to take the match.

The remainder of the singles matches went to Manhattan. Manhattan had opened the match by sweeping the three doubles contests.

The match was Russ Crispell's final home appearance as head coach of the Bulls. Crispell is retiring from coaching at the end of the season, but will remain at UB as coordinator of the Outdoor Pursuits program.

The Bulls will travel to Ball State on Saturday.

WOMEN'S

Western Michigan 6, UB 1
Bowling Green 5, UB 2

UB opened the MAC portion of its schedule with a pair of losses to some strong competition. UB fell on Friday to preseason favorite and nationally ranked Western Michigan, 6-1. On Saturday, the Bulls dropped a 5-2 decision to a very hot Bowling Green team that now has won 11 straight matches.

With her singles victory against Western Michigan, sophomore Andreea Novaceanu recorded her 20th win of the season. It was the first time that a UB player has recordsd 20 victories in a single season and she broke her own mark of 19 that she set as a freshman last season. Novaceanu, who won the MAC Player of the Week award two weeks ago, defeated last week's Player of the Week, WMU's Reedhina Parekh in straight sets, including a second-set tiebreaker, at third singles. She then moved to the second singles slot on Saturday and knocked off Bowling Green's Jenna Nussbaum, 6-1, 6-3, for her 21st victory of the year. She has not lost a singles match since Feb. 10 against Syracuse and is riding an eight-match winning streak.

Against Bowling Green on Saturday, UB did something that most opponents have been unable to do against the Falcons: win the doubles point. It was the first time in the past seven matches that Bowling Green did not earn the point. UB's number one combination of Kristen Ortman and Natalie Dean knocked off Heidi Romer and Jenna Nussbaum, 8-3, at number one. The doubles win was clinched by the number-three duo of Miglena Nenova and Smaranda Stan with an 8-6 win over Andrea Meister and Andrea Volle.

The Bulls will travel to Akron Saturday for a MAC showdown with the Zips.

Track and Field

UB successful at Raleigh Relays

UB completed a successful weekend at the Raleigh Relays, one of the largest meets in the East, with a first-place finish, a school record and several season-best marks. There was no team scoring at the meet hosted by North Carolina State.

UB junior Jessica Lister won the women's pole vault competition with a height of 11-9.75 (3.60m). Sophomore teammate Carrie Hinners placed 10th in the event with a season-best vault of 11-3.75 (3.45m).

Sophomore Vanessa Roelofsen broke her own school record to place second in the women's javelin competition. Roelofsen set the new mark with a toss of 162-2 (49.43m) to break her old mark, set in her first collegiate competition as a freshman last season, by five inches. The toss also improved Roelofsen's qualifying distance for the NCAA East Regionals at the end of the season.

Senior Jenny Koeppel also scored a second-place finish with her 36:09.89 clocking in the 10,000-meter run. Senior Jen Jezorski took third in the 1,500-meters in 4:31.90. Sophomore Caitlin Godin finished fifth in the high jump with a season-best height of 5-5 (1.65m).

In the men's meet, Roy Richards finished third in the long jump at 23-11.75 (7.31m). Richards also finished 11th in the 100-meters in 11.07 after turning in a season-best 10.98 clocking in the preliminaries.

Andy Leonard placed fourth in the unseeded portion of the men's 5,000-meter run in a season-best 15:01.48. The time by Leonard was an improvement of 47 seconds from last week's mark at the UNC-Wilmington Seahawk Invitational.

The 4x100-meter relay team finished 13th, posting a season-best time of 42.62.

The Bulls are next in action at the Miami (Ohio) Invitational on April 8.