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A win against No. 10 Duke would have launched Syracuse up the Intercollegiate Tennis Associations ranking, but SU couldn’t close out matches on Friday. No. 29 Syracuse (11-4, 4-4 Atlantic Coast) fell to No. 10 Duke (17-2, 6-1 ACC) 6-1, however, the match was much closer than the scores indicate.

“Some spots in our lineup, we competed very hard and played very well,” said head coach Younes Limam. “And credit to Duke, they were the better team.”

The Orange stumbled out of the gate, as Duke took a 4-0 and a 4-1 lead in two of the three doubles matches. But Syracuse wouldn’t go out easy, as Zeynep Erman and Ines Fonte fought back in No. 1 singles against the 32nd-ranked pairing of Chloe Beck and Cameron Morra. SU won two matches in a row to make the score 5-2.

Syracuse flipped the momentum by playing at its own pace, rather than the fast pace that Duke preferred. Limam has wanted to see that from Syracuse all season. In the eighth and final game of the match, Syracuse and Duke went back-and-forth until the game was tied at 40, a match point for the Blue Devils. Fonte’s return off the serve was just too far and out of bounds, clinching the doubles victory for Duke.

Viktoriya Kanapatskaya and Shiori Ito played a very clean doubles match against Duke’s Karolina Berankova and Ellie Coleman. Switching their shot speeds and quick counters at the net allowed Syracuse to never trail, cruising to a 6-2 win.

The third and final doubles match did not go Syracuse’s way, as Miyuka Kimoto and Polina Kozyreva fell to Georgia Drummy and Iuliia Bryzgalova. The Blue Devil pair ran the table, winning six games in a row to secure the doubles point.

Syracuse had its opportunities in singles to pull off an upset, but couldn’t do it. Coming into today, Duke had three players in the ITA’s top 100 singles rankings and the Orange only had one.

Prior to the start of the number one singles match, 95th-ranked Erman was seen by athletic trainer Jasmyn McLeod regarding a lingering back injury. Erman jumped out to a 2-1 lead over Beck, who is the second-ranked singles player in the country. But unlike Erman’s last match against a top 10 opponent, No. 8 Alexa Noel from Miami, Erman couldn’t pull out a win. Beck would win the next 11 games to secure both sets, 6-2 and 6-0.

Kanapatskaya faced No. 70 Morra, and had her opportunities to win as well. But, she lost both of the first two sets by a combined three games. Kanapatskaya never led in the first set, but would keep it close, ultimately losing 6-4. She led the following set for the majority, and reached match point two different times while up 5-4 and tied at 5-5. She, too, couldn’t close out against Duke, and lost to Morra 2-0 (6-4, 6-5).

Kimoto returned to the No. 3 singles spot for the first time in four matches, swapping places with Kozyreva. She matched against No. 31 Emma Jackson, who did not play in the doubles round. Jackson would dominate Kimoto 2-0 (6-3, 6-1).

“It’s just the matchups, anyone can move up or down. If we see a matchup we like we go for it,” Limam said.

Meanwhile, Ito won the first set 6-3 against Coleman. Yet, would lose the second set 6-4 to set up a super tiebreaker to 10 points.

Coleman made a huge run, winning nine of the first 11 points to take a commanding 9-2 lead. Ito clawed back, winning three points in a row, but once again, it was too little too late for Syracuse, as Ito lost 10-5.

Fonte would not get the opportunity to finish out her match, as she had to forfeit just three games into the first set due to a lower-body injury.

Kozyreva was the lone bright spot for the Orange, as she got back to her winning ways, securing the lone point for Syracuse against Bryzgalova. Kozyreva would win the first set 7-5, then proceed to lose the second set by the same score. This set up another super tiebreaker, but this time Syracuse got the better of Duke. Kozyreva went on a similar run to Coleman, winning nine of the first 11 points to win her match 2-1 (7-5, 5-7, 10-2).

“It’s great (for Kozyreva) to get a win for her confidence,” Limam said. “She has been playing extremely well and came up a little bit short last weekend, its very to see her getting back on track.”

Published on March 24, 2023 at 6:39 pm