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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
BUFFALO
BGSU Clinches Tie For MAC Title
April 19, 2002 | Men's Tennis
April 19, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's tennis team won at every flight over the University at Buffalo, clinching at least a tie for the Mid-American Conference regular-season title in the process, Friday afternoon (April 19). The Falcons captured the 7-0 win in the team's final match at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus.
With the victory, the Falcons (17-10 overall, 4-0 MAC) clinch only the third MAC title in school history, joining the 1964 and 2000 teams. Both of those squads tied for the league regular-season crown.
The Falcons of sixth-year head coach Jay Harris will look to become the first team in school history to win an outright MAC title Saturday (April 20). BGSU will make the short trip north to face the arch-rival University of Toledo in the final regular-season match.
Buffalo fell to 9-9 overall and 0-4 in the MAC with Friday's setback.
The Falcons captured the doubles point, winning two close matches and one blowout. At the top-two flights, both BGSU teams won by narrow 8-6 scores. Senior Vitek Wild teamed with junior Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo for the win at the top flight, while junior Geoff Hiscox and sophomore Joel Carney got the win at the middle flight. The Carney/Hiscox duo is now a perfect 4-0 in MAC matches and 17-4 overall.
Seniors Mike Kossoff and Ed Kuresman picked up an 8-0 victory at the third flight. That duo is now 4-0 on the season.
Harris saw his Falcon singles competitors sweep the Bulls in every flight but one. At the top flight, sophomore Milos Jirout gutted out a win over UB's Fery Kasiman. After the two split their first two sets, Jirout won a 10-8 third-set tiebreaker for the victory.
"Milos Jirout had a heck of an effort today," said Harris. "Fery Kasiman is a great player, and has won a lot of MAC matches.
"For Milos to step up and play at the number-one flight, and win that match, is a great effort. He should be commended for that effort today."
Carney lost only three total games in his second-flight win over Randy Rocchio, while both Kossoff (flight #4) and Kuresman (#5) lost just three games apiece in their respective singles wins.
Carney now has a total of 48 victories this season, good for a fifth-place tie on the BGSU single-season list. He has 24 singles wins and 24 doubles victories.
Freshman Ian Bliss was a winner at the third flight, while junior Peter Gardonyi got the victory at the sixth level.
"It was exciting to clinch a tie for the MAC title, especially in our last home match ever," said Harris. Now, we're going to try to put all of the excitement and distractions from this win aside, and try to just get down to playing some good, solid tennis tomorrow (Saturday).
"We want to get a win to clinch the outright title, but we also want to play well and allow that to propel us into the MAC Tournament."
The Falcons and Toledo are scheduled to play at 1:00 p.m. Saturday at the UT Varsity Tennis Courts. In the event of rain, the match would be moved to Laurel Hill Tennis Club.
The MAC Championships will be held in Buffalo, N.Y., next weekend (April 25-27).
Bowling Green 7, Buffalo 0
Singles 1 - Milos Jirout (BGSU) def. Fery Kasiman 7-5, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8) 2 - Joel Carney (BGSU) def. Randy Rocchio 6-3, 6-0 3 - Ian Bliss (BGSU) def. Nick Zieziula 7-6, 6-3 4 - Mike Kossoff (BGSU) def. Justin Brtko 6-2, 6-1 5 - Ed Kuresman (BGSU) def. Josh Liederman 6-2, 6-1 6 - Peter Gardonyi (BGSU) def. Sean Kelley 6-3, 6-2Doubles 1 - Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo/Vitek Wild (BGSU) def. Kasiman/Brtko 8-6 2 - Carney/Geoff Hiscox (BGSU) def. Rocchio/Zieziula 8-6 3 - Kossoff/Kuresman (BGSU) def. Liederman/Rohan Raikar 8-0
