VOLUME 33, NUMBER 23 THURSDAY, April 4, 2002
ReporterSports Recap

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Baseball

UB 7, Marshall 2;
Marshall 4, UB 0;
Marshall 7, UB 6

Wet grounds at the Amherst Pepsi Center Field sent the Bulls packing to Huntington, WVa., for their weekend series against Marshall. UB took the first game of the series, 7-2, then lost Saturday's doubleheader, 4-0 and 7-6. Sunday's scheduled contest was cancelled due to rain.

Athletes of the Week

Fery Kasiman of the men's tennis team swept his spring matches in Florida, going 2-0 in both singles and doubles with Justin Brtko. The junior, at first singles, scored a 6-2, 6-1 win over his opponent from Rollins and won 6-3, 6-2 in his match against Portland State. Kasiman, a tri-captain on this year's squad, is 16-2 this season in singles play.

Hollie Rhodes of the women's track-and-field team set a school record in the 3000-meter steeplechase at North Carolina State's Raleigh Relays. Against a field of some of the top runners in the country, Rhodes crossed the finish line in 11:11.45. The time broke her previous school record of 11:49.66 that she set last season.

In the opener, UB righthander Tyler Balentine went the distance to earn his second victory of the season. The junior allowed two runs—one unearned—while striking out three and walking one. He scattered 11 hits and was aided by five double plays turned by the Bulls' infield. Balentine had been named Mid American Conference East Division Pitcher of the Week the week before.

In Saturday's opener, Marshall earned all of its runs in the fifth inning off of UB starter Mike Leslie.

In the nightcap, Marshall jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first before UB responded with all six of its runs in the bottom of the third. Marshall rallied for five runs in the seventh inning for the deciding margin.

Softball

Canisius 9, UB 0
Marshall 4, UB 3;
Marshall 7, UB 1;
Marshall 7, UB 2

UB was shut out at Canisius College, 9-0, on a cold afternoon to open the week. The Golden Griffins held a 3-0 lead after three innings before breaking the game open with six runs in the fourth. The Bulls were held to just one hit, a single by Breanne Nasti, and hurt their cause by committing three errors in the field. The second game of the scheduled doubleheader was cancelled due to the weather.

UB's series against Marshall was moved to Huntington due to the wet conditions in Buffalo. The Bulls were swept in the three-game series, 4-3 and 7-1 on Friday and 7-2 on Saturday, to fall to 1-12 on the year and 0-6 in the MAC.

Tennis

Men's

UB 5, Rollins 2
UB 6, Portland State 1

UB rolled to two wins in spring-break matches played in Florida. The Bulls defeated Rollins College, 5-2, on March 26 and earned a 6-1 win over Portland State on March 27. The victories improved the Bulls' record to 9-6 on the season.

Against Rollins, the Bulls swept the doubles competition, with Fery Kasiman and Justin Brtko at No. 1 and Rohan Raikar and Josh Liederman at No. 3 scoring identical 8-4 victories. Freshmen Randy Rocchio and Nick Zieziula defeated their opponents at the No. 2 slot by an 8-3 margin. In singles competition, Kasiman at No. 1 (6-2, 6-1), Brtko at No. 3 (6-1, 6-2), Zieziula at No. 4 (6-2, 6-0) and Sean Kelley at No. 6 (6-0, 6-0) all earned easy two-set victories.

Against Portland State, the Bulls again earned the doubles point with a sweep of the Vikings. Brtko (6-0, 6-2) and Kelley (6-1, 6-0) won easily at No. 1, 3 and 6 singles, respectively, and Zieziula took the first set at No. 4 singles, 6-0, before his opponent retired. At second singles, Rocchio battled for a 6-3, 7-10, 10-8 win.

Women's

Portland State 6, UB 1
Tampa 7, UB 0

UB traveled to Florida for a pair of spring-break matches. The Bulls fell 6-1 in Orlando to Portland State and 7-0 to the University of Tampa in Tampa. Jen Wong won both her singles and doubles matches against Portland State, defeating Holly Meldahl, 6-1, 6-2 at number four for UB's lone point. In her match against Tampa, Wong moved up to number two for her singles match, falling in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 10-8.

Track and Field

Bulls set six school records in Raleigh Relays

More than 3,000 athletes from 110 competing institutions converged on North Carolina State University last weekend for the Raleigh Relays. UB emerged from the meet with six new school records. No team scoring was kept due to the large number of competitors.

Headlining UB's performances was senior Sarah Fletcher, who set a new school record in the discus competition with a toss of 147-4 (44.92m) to finish seventh. Hollie Rhodes broke her own school record in the 3000-meter steeplechase, turning in a time of 11:11.45 to finish ninth overall. UB's 800-meter relay squad also established a new record with a 15th-place finish of 1:41.54.

In the men's competition, shot putter Byron McKinney placed sixth with a toss of 53-10.50 (16.42m), bettering the record of 53-3.25 (16.24m). Distance specialist Todd Ludden broke his own record with a ninth-place finish in the 10,000 meters in 30:54.58. UB's 800-meter relay team broke an eight-year-old record by placing 11th in its race in 1:27.27.

Crew

Bulls open season in Ithaca

UB opened the spring season with a tri-meet against Ithaca and Marist, with the Bulls taking two of three contested races. The varsity four squad of Margaret Siller, Jessica Barrell, Cortney Kane, Sara Sheffer and coxswain Tina LaFountain won its race in 8:04.9, defeating Ithaca by a slim six-tenths of a second. UB's novice eight team won its race in 7:01.7.

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