Published: April 28, 2008 12:04 am      

WOMEN'S TENNIS: UB going to first NCAA tournament

AMHERST — Smaranda Stan strode away from the court, frustrated with how the first half of her match had gone. She stood at the chain-link fence, glanced down, then up, forced an exhale, spun around and slapped her muscular thigh.

The University at Buffalo women’s tennis team was on the brink of defeat Sunday, close to a season finale that had become quite familiar. The Bulls had already lost two singles matches against the top-seeded Western Michigan Broncos, and were swept in the doubles round. The Broncos were one victory away from becoming MAC champions for the third year in a row.

But then UB’s Diana Popescu won her singles match over Noriko Saruta, and Diana Toia outlasted Ashley Moccia. When Denise Harijanto bounced back from a 6-0 loss in the second set to defeat Priyanka Parekh, she released the tension from her three-set victory by hugging her mother, serving a few tears, and reminding herself, “one more. We’re so close.”

A crowd estimated at 150 then gathered in one corner of the Ellicott Tennis Courts, around the ocean blue-painted court where Stan’s match with Emily Dudzik would decide the conference championship.

“Let’s go Sma,” was the dominant refrain.

Stan withstood a loss in the first set and battled back to win the second and third sets to cap a stunning comeback for the Bulls, who won the match 4-3 to claim the program’s first MAC title.

“For the first time, I enjoyed having a lot of people around me,” said Stan, a junior from Stantu Gheorghe, Romania, who was named tournament MVP. “I saw my mom near me, which gave me a lot of confidence, and I imagined myself being at a practice and I knew I was going to do it. I wanted to be the last one, because I knew I was going to win.”

Stan won all three of her singles matches during the tournament, included a three-set clinching victory in the quarterfinals against Toledo.

“The coaches and I were joking, prophetically I guess, that if we wanted anybody in the trenches, anybody to decide the match, it’s Sma,” UB coach Kathy Twist said.

In each of the past two seasons, UB advanced to the MAC final before losing to Western Michigan. After being picked in the preseason to win the MAC this year, UB went 4-4 in the regular season and entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed.

The Bulls will find out Tuesday who they will face in the first round of the NCAA championship tournament, which begins May 9. This is the first time a UB team has qualified for an NCAA championship event since the program returned to Division I in 1996.

“I’m very proud of this team,” Twist said. “We made history. I hope this is the first of many MAC championships for this university. I’m sure you’re going to see a lot more teams holding up a trophy like we did today.”

Eight years after its women’s soccer team won a regular season title, the Bulls have their second MAC championship trophy, and first since athletic director Warde Manuel was hired in 2006 and promised 10 MAC championships in four years.

“The ladies have been knocking on the door for the last couple years, and to see them do it here, in front of the home crowd, I couldn’t be prouder of Kathy and the team,” Manuel said. “I told the coaches I would stop wearing my Michigan ring when I had a MAC championship ring to replace it.”

Contact reporter Jonah Bronstein at bronsteinj@gnnewspaper.com