Miami University
No. 6 Seed Buffalo
RedHawks Edged by Bulls in MAC Tournament Semifinals, 4-2
4/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 26, 2008
BUFFALO, N.Y.--Miami University's women's tennis team suffered a hard-fought 4-2 loss to host Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference Tournament semifinals on Saturday afternoon at the Ellicott Tennis Facility on the University at Buffalo campus.
The No. 2 seed RedHawks (14-7) fell behind early as the No. 6 seed Bulls (11-8) captured two of the three doubles flights. Miami freshmen Cara Wald and Megan Martzolf captured an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles against Smaranda Stan and Diana Toia.
It was not enough, however, as Buffalo's Diana Popescu and Denise Harijanto topped freshman Anastasia Dracheva and sophomore Brintney Larson at No. 1 singles, 8-4, and UB's Andreea Novaceanu and Tina Jacob outlasted Miami senior Leda Pesatova and freshman Sydnee Bridger 9-8 (6) at No. 3 doubles to capture the first point of the match.
Senior Kelly Douple evened things up with a solid 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 5 singles against Buffalo's Toia. In the sixth flight, Wald knocked out a 6-4, 6-1 win against UB's Jacob, but Buffalo's Harijanto topped Larson at No. 2 singles 6-3, 6-2 to leave the match deadlocked at 2-2.
The first third and fourth flights continued to battle as the matches went to three sets. Pesatova took the first set against Popescu at No. 3 singles, 6-3. Popescu came back with 6-4, 6-4 wins to capture No. 3 singles for the Bulls.
Martzolf outlasted Stan in the first set at No. 4 singles 7-6 (4). Stan came back with a 6-1 win in the second set and captured the fourth flight with a 6-4 win in the third set. Those two points handed the Bulls the match, advancing them to the championship match against No. 1 seed Western Michigan at noon on Sunday.
At No. 1 singles Novaceanu won the first set 6-4, but Dracheva sent the first flight to a third set with a 6-3 win in the second set. Dracheva was leading 5-4 in the third before play was suspended as Buffalo had the match in hand.
The match was originally scheduled to start at 2 p.m. but was delayed until 3:30 due to rain.
