2015 MAC Men's Tennis Tournament Preview
MAC Men's Tennis Championship Preview
The regular season champion, and No. 1 seed, Huskies will open the tournament against fourth-seeded Buffalo on Friday at 10 a.m., in the first semifinal. Following that match at 2 p.m., No. 2 Western Michigan will meet No. 3 Binghamton in the second semifinal.
"I think we are as ready as we can be," said NIU head coach Patrick Fisher. "We had a great week of practice and, as I told our guys, there is absolutely zero pressure on us. I think there is more pressure on the other three teams, we have nothing to lose.
"We are excited to play at home. We haven't played an outdoor match at home, so tomorrow should be our first one of the year. I'm hoping we can get a good crowd out to support us. It isn't often that you have a conference championship on your campus so as the host, and the number one seed, I think there are some really neat things surrounding this weekend."
NIU and Buffalo will be meeting for the second time in less than a week after the Huskies defeated the Bulls in Buffalo, 5-2, last Sunday (April 19) to clinch the MAC regular season championship. The Bulls took the doubles point and won the first singles match before NIU won the final five singles matches to clinch the match win and improve to 18-5 on the season, 4-1 in MAC play.
Senior Frederic Cadieux (Verdun, Quebec, Canada/Ediuard-Montpetit) earned the decisive singles point in the win over Buffalo. The victory was his 17th of the season, and the 95th of his Huskie career, tied for the third-most in school history. Sophomore Carlos Manzanas (Madrid, Spain/IES Principe Felipe) won his team-best 21st singles match of the season last week against the Bulls and freshman Louis-Philippe Hamel (Drummondville, Quebec, Canada) recorded his 20th win of the season in the regular season finale.
Buffalo travels to DeKalb with a 10-10 overall record, 2-3 in league play. Pablo Alvarez has a team-high 24 wins to lead the Bulls this season; Damien David, Buffalo's lone singles winner last week against the Huskies, has 20 victories.
Friday's meeting marks the second consecutive season that the Huskies and Bulls have met in the semifinals of the MAC Tournament. Buffalo topped NIU, 4-2, last year in Muncie, Ind.
The winners of Friday's semifinals will meet on Saturday, April 25, in the championship match at 1 p.m., for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. In the event of weather on either Friday or Saturday, matches will be moved indoors to the Vaughn Tennis Center in Aurora.
No. 2 Seed Western Michigan:
Broncos Face Binghamton Friday; Western Michigan Video Preview; Western Michigan Tennis Stats
The Western Michigan Broncos finished the regular season with an 18-6 overall record and a 3-2 record in Mid-American Conference play for the second seed in the MAC Men's Tennis Tournament. Western Michigan will face the third seed Binghamton Bearcats at 2:00 pm ET on Friday, April 24.
No. 3 Seed Binghamton:
Bearcats Advance To MAC Tournament; Binghamton Video Preview; Binghamton Tennis Stats
VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton men's tennis completed an unlikely turnaround to earn a postseason berth in the program's first season as a member of the Mid-American Conference.
The Bearcats (7-15, 3-2 MAC) seized the No. 3 seed for the upcoming championship and will face second-seeded Western Michigan in a semifinal match at 2 p.m. Friday on campus at Northern Illinois University. The host and top-seeded Huskies will face fourth-seeded Buffalo in the opening semifinal. The two winners will meet in Saturday's 1 p.m. championship with a berth to the NCAA Championship on the line.
After capturing seven consecutive championships as a member of the America East, BU was presented a much stiffer challenge in the loaded MAC, where only the top four teams reach the postseason and the margin between second and fifth place was just one win.
Binghamton dropped its first two conference matches in in early February - losses that spun into a 14-match losing skid that tested the team's mettle. But head coach Nick Zieziula's squad rallied with wins over Buffalo (5-2), Toledo (5-2) and then BU earned a tournament-clinching 5-2 win over defending MAC champion Ball State Sunday on the final day of the regular season.
"We have focused on the process of working hard each day and improving piece by piece," Zieziula said. "We will continue that process this week and carry that attitude through Dekalb."
No. 4 Seed Buffalo:
Bulls Look To Make Noise In MAC Tennis Tournament; Buffalo Video Preview; Buffalo Tennis Stats
DEKALB, IL – The University at Buffalo, State University of New York men's tennis team will open action at the 2015 Mid-American Conference Tournament Friday. The fourth-seeded Bulls will face top-seeded and host Northern Illinois in the semifinals at 11 am ET. Weather permitting, all matches will take place at the West Tennis Courts as the league's top four teams vie for an automatic berth into the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship.
The Bulls earned the four seed with a 2-3 conference record, while the Huskies went 4-1 to claim the top seed and their second straight regular-season conference title. The teams will battle for the second time in six days after NIU visited Buffalo on Sunday. The Huskies defeated UB, 5-2, at the Ellicott Tennis Courts in the regular-season finale.
In MAC Tournament play, NIU leads the series, 3-1, with UB picking up the most recent victory. The Bulls ousted the first-seeded Huskies, 4-2, in the 2014 semifinals to earn one of their three appearances in the championship match. UB is 6-18 in tournament history dating back to 1999 and 4-5 under head coach Lee Nickell since 2010.
Friday's second semifinal will take place at 3 pm with second-seeded Western Michigan taking on third-seeded Binghamton. The Broncos edged the Bearcats, 4-3, on Feb. 8. If Friday's semifinals are moved to an indoor facility, match times will be pushed back to 2 and 6 pm.
