It all started in warmups when senior captain Miranda Ramirez yelled out instructions to her young teammates, of whom three of six are freshmen.

After Syracuse lost the doubles point, Ramirez, the No. 80 singles player in the nation, huddled everyone up and urged SU to “take the singles, we can’t let them have any more breaks.” They listened, and Ramirez’s 6-1, 7-5 singles win clinched a team victory and SU’s fourth singles match win. Ramirez added a doubles victory to improve to 6-0 on the season in Syracuse’s (3-0) 5-2 win over Cornell (0-4).

“We know that we have the confidence to beat this team,” Ramirez said postgame.

SU lost the doubles point when partners Polina Kozyreva and Zeynep Erman, as well as ITA’s No. 48 Kim Hansen and Sonya Treshcheva both lost. Then, led by Ramirez, SU huddled and regrouped to win five of the first six singles sets.

Even though Ramirez encouraged her teammates to play assuredly, her own confidence waned in her singles match against Ashley Huang. After cruising through the first set 6-1, Ramirez stumbled in the second. All looked to be going as planned for Ramirez, up 3-1 in the second set before coughing up three straight games, and falling behind 4-3.

Head coach Younes Limam said there’s “ups and downs” in tennis, and after taking a sip of Gatorade and consulting with assistant coach Jennifer Meredith, Ramirez turned to her trusty serve for back-to-back aces to swing momentum.

“Mentally I had to stay strong and just sort of know that like I was better,” Ramirez said. “It was a little closer than I think it needed to be but it’s alright as long as I get the W in the end.”

Ramirez’s aces led to her taking four the next five games, breaking Huang’s serve once. At one point, Huang led out a frustrated sigh, banging the green tarp by the wall with her racket after losing the set lead. After regaining the lead, Ramirez’s straight-faced demeanor also returned.

Hansen and Guzal Yusupova played similarly in control, losing a combined four games total. Freshman Kozyreva, playing in place of an injured No. 111 Sofya Golubovskaya, won 6-1, 7-6 for SU’s fifth singles win.

After its third straight win, Syracuse circled to stretch, with the veteran Ramirez leading the routine. Leadership comes naturally, said Ramirez. And even when she was struggling, Limam said he wasn’t too concerned with Ramirez’s match, evidence of the trust they’ve developed over the past four years.

“They all owned their court, and I’m super proud of them,” said Ramirez. “So it’s a great team win today.”

Published on January 26, 2020 at 8:06 pm

Contact Thomas: tgshults@syr.edu | @ThomasShults_