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No. 16 Syracuse (9-1, 3-1 Atlantic Coast) suffered its first season loss against No. 15 Virginia (7-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast), as the Cavaliers toppled the Orange 4-2 at Drumlins Country Club on Friday afternoon.

Syracuse found themselves in a hole early as they were unable to capitalize in doubles play. In the No. 1 doubles match, SU’s tandem of Viktoriya Kanapatskaya and Ines Fonte were handled swiftly by Virginia’s Julia Adams and Melodie Collard, the No. 41 ranked doubles pair in the country. Adams and Collard were able to put pressure on the Orange with aggressive net play, and cruised to a 6-0 victory.

In the No. 2 spot, first-time duo Zeynep Erman and Polina Kozyreva faced off with the No. 7 doubles pair in the country, Elaine Chervinsky and Natasha Subhash. In a neck-and-neck affair, the two sides were knotted at 3-3, but after failing to break UVA’s service on deuce and a pair of double faults, Erman and Kozyreva found themselves down 5-3. The duo weren’t able to pull it out after an attempted comeback and fell 7-5.

Shiori Ito and Miyuka Kimoto experienced another close matchup with Hibah Shaikh and Sara Ziodato. After eight games the score was split evenly at 4-4. Ito and Kimoto were about to clinch victory after gaining a 5-4 advantage, but their match was unfinished as Syracuse had already lost the prior two doubles matches.

Kozyreva and Kanapatskaya, both undefeated this season in singles, each respectively took care of business, notching Syracuse’s two wins of the day. In control for almost the entirety of the match, Kozyreva ousted Virginia’s Ziodato 6-4, 6-1 for her tenth singles win of the season. Kanapatskaya matched up with No. 110 Subhash, stayed hot using a good mix of shots to win the first set 6-4, but found herself in a hole in the second set down 2-1. Yet like she has always done this season, Kanapatskaya found her footing and went on to win the next three games, and eventually win the set 6-3.

“They [Kozyreva and Kanapatskaya] work extremely hard and a lot of it is confidence, so I hope they can keep going with their records and just build on today’s match,” said Syracuse head coach Younes Limam.

Ito, who entered singles play on a seven-match win streak, found herself down early to No. 92 Shaikh 6-2 following the first step, but was able to pick up the pace in the second. The subsequent set was much more competitive, as the two were squared at 4-4, but Ito wasn’t able to win a single point on her service the next game, and ultimately fell 6-2, 6-4.

The struggles for the former Syracuse No. 1 singles player continued, as Kimoto was up 3-0 against Chervinsky before she sustained an injury trying to salvage a point. She played through the pain, but went on to drop 12 of the matches’ next 14 games, ultimately losing 6-4, 6-1.

In the No. 1 matchup, Erman started on fire, as she broke No. 38 Adams’ serve in the first game of the match and went on to win the first three games to go up 3-0, and then went on to win two of the next three to go up 5-1.

Coming off of the best win of her career last weekend against the No. 8 ranked player in the nation, Erman was about as efficient as possible in every aspect of her game. However, Adams roared back by winning the next three games. In a large and exciting match that was fueled with controversy surrounding the officiating, the first two sets were split 6-4, 6-7. Erman had numerous break and even match point chances, but was unable to capitalize and was trailing 0-2 in the third set when Fonte’s match ended, officially clinching victory for Virginia.

Fonte’s match against Collard, which also went the distance, was filled with ups and downs. Fonte started slowly and remained at arm’s length for the entire first set, until she fell 4-6. In the second set, Fonte started strong and jumped out to a 4-1 lead. Yet, conservative play saw her early lead slip and the two headed for a tiebreak. Fonte went on to win the tiebreaker 7-4, but exhaustion got to her in the final set, as she struggled in just every aspect to get swept 6-0.

While the result didn’t go their way, Limam reflected on the team’s struggle to capitalize on big points.

“I think we just needed to be more aggressive and play on our terms in those moments. Honestly I didn’t really see much that we could have done differently.”

SU is hoping to bounce back and the team continues on its three-day home stretch against Coppin State on Saturday, and then Virginia Tech on Sunday.

Published on March 3, 2023 at 8:46 pm

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