NIU men’s tennis (15-6, 5-2 MAC) suffered a 5-2 road defeat to the University at Buffalo (12-2, 5-2 MAC) on Thursday, snapping the Huskies’ four game winning streak.
The Huskies failed to create distance at first place in the Mid-American Conference and ran into a fierce Bulls side defending their unbeaten home record.
With this defeat, NIU now drops to third in MAC standings behind Buffalo and Western Michigan University at first, both at 6-2 in conference play.
Buffalo got the quick advantage in doubles and faced little resistance in singles, sweeping matchups No. 3 through No. 6. Senior Iker Gaztambide Arrastia and sophomore Nikola Puntaric salvaged two points for NIU.
“We didn’t compete like a championship team today,” René Vidal said. “A slow start in doubles at No. 1 and No. 2 put us behind early and we didn’t close out sets in singles like the finishers we are. We lost our composure in key moments.”
DOUBLES
Buffalo pair of graduate student Clement Mainguy and senior Theodoros Mitsakos kicked off with a statement 6-1 win over Arrastia and Puntaric before NIU duo senior Federico Scotuzzi and sophomore Lorenzo Leti Messina equalized, taking down senior Faiz Nasyam and junior Minjae Kim 6-2.
Senior Iker Dellien Velasco and sophomore Chiao Bo Suo Nan attempted to reverse a 4-1 deficit against junior duo of Onder Balci and Michael Malkin but fell short 6-4, leaving NIU winless in doubles versus Buffalo this season.
SINGLES
At the top court, Puntaric secured a dominant 6-3, 6-1 win over Mitsakos. The first set saw both players trading games but Puntaric pulled away at 3-3 before closing out the first Huskie point.
It was all Buffalo from there; Mainguy regained the lead with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Leti Messina at No. 3 while senior Emiliano Joquera followed up with a straight set victory against Suo Nan at No. 5.
Suo Nan couldn’t recover from a 4-1 hole in the first set and was swept 6-0 in the following set.
Down 3-1, Dellien’s hot 5-1 start versus Nasyam at No. 6 looked to spark a late NIU rally but the Huskie couldn’t convert. The Bull ripped six straight games to take set one 7-5 before clinching the winning point in set two 6-2.
The Bulls rounded out their sharp performance at No. 4 after Scotuzzi fell to Kim in straight sets, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3). Scotuzzi managed to force a tiebreaker after being down 3-0 in the second set but ran out of steam.
Arrastia grabbed the final NIU point and extended his singles play winning streak to five games with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 result over Balci at No. 2.
UP NEXT
The Huskies hope to regain first place in MAC on the road versus the University of Toledo at noon Saturday in Toledo, Ohio.
“We plan to be much stronger mentally in our next match and use this loss as a lesson for growth,” Vidal said.
