Syracuse ends regular season with 4-0 loss vs. Notre Dame
Syracuse tennis concluded its regular season with a 4-0 loss to Notre Dame Sunday, dropping its conference record to 2-10. Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Video Editor
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During Younes Limam’s 11-year tenure at Syracuse, two late-season struggles have persisted: poor road performance and limited success in ACC play. Last season, the Orange went 0-7 away from home and just 4-9 in the conference.
This year, not much has changed. After a 5-2 win over Boston University on Feb. 8, Syracuse dropped four straight road matches—a stretch that marked the low point of a turbulent season. The Orange were outclassed by Stanford and California, then narrowly fell to Georgia Tech and Clemson to end March 0-4 on the road.
Friday’s matchup with Louisville pitted two struggling ACC teams against each other, with just four combined conference wins. Down 3-0 early, Syracuse stormed back with wins at No. 2, 3, 5 and 6 singles to secure its second ACC victory of 2025. Heading into Sunday’s clash with No. 24 Notre Dame, SU aimed to do something it hadn’t since February 2023: win back-to-back conference matches.
However, the Orange failed to carry their momentum into Sunday’s regular season finale with the Fighting Irish. Syracuse (9-10, 2-10 ACC) was overmatched 4-0 by Notre Dame (19-4, 9-3 ACC) Sunday. Next, SU heads to the ACC Tournament as the No. 16 Seed, where it’ll begin play against No. 17 Seed Boston College Tuesday.
At No. 3 doubles, Serafima Shastova and Monika Wojcik teamed up for their 14th straight match, facing Notre Dame’s Bianca Molnar and Bojana Pozder. SU got on the board at 2-1 when it avoided fully collapsing from 40-0 up.
Down 5-2 after a missed volley, Shastova and Wojcik were staring down a third straight loss. They briefly showed life when a Notre Dame lob floated long, giving them a 40-30 edge. But a perfectly-placed Irish volley flipped the momentum. Molnar and Pozder closed out the set with ease, 6-3, despite SU’s late push.
This season, Limam has often tinkered with the No. 1 doubles pairing. Against No. 5 Virginia on April 6, he opted to go with Miyuka Kimoto and Nelly Knezkova. On Friday against Louisville, SU went with Anastasia Sysoeva and Knezkova for the first time all year. But after a 6-1 loss, Limam chose Shiori Ito and Knezkova for Sunday’s match again.
Ito and Knezkova took on Notre Dame’s Carrie Beckman and Akari Matsuno. After solid patience from Ito early, the Orange took a 1-0 advantage in the set.
SU and ND traded points until the Fighting Irish drilled a shot down the doubles line that stayed in play. Ito and Knezkova had no response to that return or the rest of the way, dropping the set 6-3.
Since Beckman and Matsuno’s victory clinched the doubles point for Notre Dame, the No. 2 match between Sysoeva/Kimoto and Notre Dame’s Nibi Ghosh and Rylie Hanford was abandoned.
In the No. 1 singles match, Kimoto faced off against Matsuno. Down 2-1, Kimoto delivered an unreturnable volley, leveling the score at 2-2. From there, it was all Matsuno. Kimoto’s shot was barely out and Notre Dame took the first set, 6-4.
After Kimoto took an early 1-0 lead in the second set, she was overpowered the rest of the way. Trailing 5-2, her return serve was well short and hit the net, resulting in a loss.
While SU started the year an abysmal 5-11 at the No. 3 singles spot, Serafima Shastova collected back-to-back wins at this position over Virginia and Louisville, and stayed at the spot versus ND. Against ND’s Bianca Molnar, however, Shastova was outdueled 6-1 in the first set.
In the second set, Molnar’s sharp cross-court returns and volleys helped her build a 5-2 lead. Ito responded with a well-timed shot and capitalized on an errant return to make it 5-3. But Molnar’s power proved too much down the stretch, as she sealed the win and clinched the match for Notre Dame.
SU’s singles fate rested on Ito with the team down 3-0. Ito squared off with ND’s Hanford in the No. 5 spot. A back-and-forth match ended in a tiebreaker loss for Ito, as she saw her early 3-1 lead progressively slip away throughout the set.
The No. 2, 4 and 6 singles matches were abandoned due to Notre Dame clinching victory after Molnar’s win.
It was a familiar tale for the Orange: woes on the road and in the ACC. It’ll need to reverse both factors if it wants to make a run at the conference tournament this week.
