Louisville assistant coach Kevin Fulton stared across Drumlins Country Club while scratching his goatee and then ducked his head down when he began to walk across court three to his first doubles pairing. Andrea Di Palma had just rocketed a shot past Syracuse’s Zeynep Erman and Guzal Yusupova’s baseline and furthered the Orange’s lead to 5-2. Fulton crouched by the bench near Di Palma and her partner, Rhea Verma, clapping as he encouraged them. 

The chat didn’t help. Syracuse clinched its first set of its doubles point through Louisville’s first double loss. 

For the past five matches, it was Syracuse head coach Younes Limam who would bow his head as one of his doubles pairs smashed balls into the net, missed an easy shot or sent hits out of bounds. But on Sunday, in SU’s 4-3 win over Louisville (8-4, 0-3 Atlantic Coast), Syracuse (8-2, 3-1) snapped its five-game losing streak on the doubles point after a complete switch of Limam’s doubles teams on Feb. 23 against Duke. Since the Duke match, every SU player has a new doubles partner.

“Going into Friday I knew it was going to be tough,” Limam said after the Louisville win. “When you play with somebody you haven’t played with yet it takes a little bit of time.”

After winning the coin toss, Yusupova and Erman, in their second time playing together this season, retreated to the right side of court three and Yusupova took position to serve. After a starting six-hit rally, Di Palma with her back facing the net knocked a winner past the Syracuse duo. But with Erman’s drop shots and net hits in Louisville’s doubles alleys, Syracuse locked down the first point and held their serve.

After a three-game push for Syracuse’s first singles duo, Louisville began firing backcourt winners that neither Erman nor Yusupova could reach. But the Orange eventually accumulated a 5-2 lead, which had Fulton fired up in the hopes of a comeback for his team. 

After a set comeback from Louisville, SU volunteer assistant coach Len Lopoo shouted, “Right here, you two, let’s go.” After that, Verma released a forehand straight into her net, earning Syracuse the first-doubles win and pushing the Orange to only need one more point to clinch.

Eyes began to turn to courts one and two to see if either Syracuse’s freshman and senior third doubles pairing of Kim Hansen and Miranda Ramirez or second doubles of Sonya Treshcheva and Sofya Golubovskaya could win their matches. 

Golubovskaya and Treshcheva couldn’t break Louisville’s serve and gave Louisville a 1-0 lead. But with Golubovskaya serving and Treshcheva at the net, Treshcheva snuck balls close over the net into Louisville’s alley and out of reach for Louisville, tying the match at one set apiece. 

“It’s really great for us to get that doubles point against a really good team,” said Ramirez. “So I think it will give us a lot of confidence going forward.”

After breaking Louisville’s serve, Syracuse’s second doubles duo grew its lead in tandem with Hansen and Ramirez, with the score cards at one point on both their courts reading 3-1 Syracuse. But after a slight push from Treshcheva and Golubovskaya, the latter eventually fired a forehand winner past Louisville’s and won their match 6-4. Soon after, Ramirez and Hansen shook hands with their opponents. Their match became inconsequential after SU clinched the overall point. 

But as Syracuse clinched its first doubles point after five straight losses, there was no celebration. The Orange still had to win the match and wandered to their respective courts to eventually gain their second win of the weekend.

“Tennis is a big game of confidence,” said Limam. “All three courts did a great job of having a great start and keeping their foot on the gas.”

Published on March 1, 2020 at 5:43 pm

Contact Christopher: cscargla@syr.edu | @chrisscargs