Syracuse singles struggles result in 4-3 loss to UMass
Syracuse dominated UMass in doubles play Saturday but lost four of its six singles matches, resulting in a 4-3 loss. Keenan Sawada | Contributing Photographer
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Syracuse looked energetic and well-rested early Saturday, but that didn’t last long.
Despite the absence of Anastasia Sysoeva from the Orange’s 15th-ranked doubles pairing, Syracuse dominated UMass in doubles play. Serafima Shastova and Monika Wojcik dominated in the top doubles spot, winning 6-2. But SU’s singles struggles proved costly, as the Orange (2-3, Atlantic Coast) fell 4-3 to UMass (3-1 Mid-American).
After Shastova and Wojcik’s win, Nelly Knezkova and new partner Constance Levivier also won handily, giving the Orange an early 1-0 lead. SU’s No. 3 pairing, Leena Bennetto and Emma Scaldalai, fell 6-4.
The Orange continued their hot start in singles play, where four of the five players who played in both matches took the first set.
Disaster struck in the second set, though. Other than Wojcik, who won in straight sets, Haram Kim and Levivier, who both dropped their initial sets, every player lost their second set. Though they reached a third set in nearly all of their matches, the Orange’s 2-0 lead still seemed comfortable, and a victory was still within grasp.
After Kim dropped her match, it looked like Syracuse was getting tired. Serves became sloppy, and SU looked like a shell of itself at the start of the match.
It didn’t help that star senior Shastova exited after doubles play with an apparent knee injury, and it didn’t help that Syracuse had no momentum in the third set.
SU had its chances in the third set. Up 3-1 after Knezkova finished off Ella Faessler, all it had to do was win one of the final three matches, all three of which were led by Syracuse at one point.
Levivier, who led 3-1 at one point, dropped five of the next six games to lose 6-4, and Scaldalai battled through a tiebreaker set only to fall.
Tied at three, the match would come down to Bennetto. Down 5-3, Bennetto stormed all the way back to eventually take the lead 6-5.
“I was very proud of Leena,” Syracuse head coach Younes Limam said. “She did a tremendous job of hanging in there.”
With all eyes on Bennetto, she dropped what would’ve been the game-winning match, and a tiebreaker set followed to decide the winner of the dual.
The tiebreaker set was met with dead silence by those in attendance. Both teams were on the sideline, hanging on every swing from the players. The score went back and forth several times through the extra set, but eventually, Bennetto fell, and Martina Pavissich was mobbed by her teammates after completing an improbable comeback.
Exhaustion will be the key going forward, as the Orange began a stretch of three matches in six days against UMass. The second leg of a back-to-back will commence Sunday against Boston University.
“We unfortunately came up a little short today,” Limam said. “We need to do a better job about keeping momentum.”
