Syracuse tennis falls 4-1 in regular season finale to Clemson
Younes Limam's Syracuse tennis squad concluded its 2026 regular season with a 4-1 loss to Clemson. Charlie Hynes | Staff Photographer
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A year ago in Cary, North Carolina, Syracuse found some magic in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament against Clemson.
The No. 16-seeded Orange shocked the college tennis world and advanced to the third round of the tournament with an upset against the No. 9-seeded Tigers.
On Sunday, Syracuse (7-12, 3-9 ACC) tried to conjure up the same spell against No. 24 Clemson (17-7, 7-5 ACC), but those powers had disappeared. Once again, SU hung with the Tigers but ultimately came up short and finished its disappointing 2026 regular season with a 4-1 loss.
Syracuse’s struggles began early in doubles. Its top doubles pairing of Anastasia Sysoeva and Nelly Knezkova quickly fell behind 4-1 to Clemson’s Jade Groen and Rinon Okuwaki.
But despite their early woes, Sysoeva and Knezkova climbed back into the match. They claimed two quick points to cut the deficit to one before Groen and Okuwaki brought the match back to 5-3, on the brink of ending.
That didn’t deter Syracuse, though, as Knezkova and Sysoeva battled back to tie the match 5-5. The pair sent their second straight doubles match to a tiebreaker and held the advantage entering the extra point.
But unlike their doubles win on Friday, Sysoeva and Knezkova couldn’t complete the comeback and ultimately fell 7-4 in the tiebreaker point to finish a palpitating match.
It was the same story in the No. 2 doubles. Shastova and Wojcik went back and forth with Talia Neilson-Gatenby and Romana Cisovska, similar to most of their recent matches. They pushed Neilson-Gatenby and Cisovska to a tiebreaker as well, but they lost it by a massive 7-1 margin.
Leena Bennetto and Constance Levivier began the final home doubles match of their college careers in a dream fashion. After jumping out to a 4-2 lead, it looked like they’d cruise to the finish line.
That dream turned into a nightmare. Artemis Aslanisvili and Sophie Clayton roared to life and won four straight to complete a Clemson sweep in doubles.
“Those points can really go either way,” head coach Younes Limam said post-match. “We need to do a better job putting it away at the net.”
In singles, freshman Emma Scaldalai got the Orange on the board first. Scaldalai never let Clayton into the match, shutting her out in the first set. Scaldalai didn’t complete the sweep, but the deficit was too much for Clayton to overcome, and she fell in straight sets (6-0, 6-2).
Wojcik may lead Syracuse with 10 wins on the season, but Neilson-Gatenby handily beat her in the No. 4 singles match as well. Wojcik fell behind early and never found her way back into the match, losing 6-2, 6-2 for another straight-set loss.
Like Wojcik, Bennetto was handily beaten in the first set. Aslanisvili amassed a four-point victory in the first set, and early in the second set, it looked like the final score would be similar to that of Neilson-Gatenby’s victory.
Bennetto thought otherwise, though, and fought back to force an extra point in an attempt to send the match to a third set. Ultimately, it wasn’t meant to be, as Neilson-Gatenby took the tiebreaker 7-6 to put Clemson on the doorstep of victory.
Down to its last breath, Syracuse was left with its top two players: Sysoeva and Shastova. The pair played two similar matches. While Sysoeva started on a scorching pace and beat Clemson’s Groen 6-0 in the first set, Shastova took longer to pull away, playing at an even pace with Okuwaki before pulling away to win the first set 6-3.
Despite each winning the first set, both players fell behind in the second and fell 6-3 to force a deciding third set, as they tried to complete the comeback over Clemson.
As the tension grew in Drumlins, the two players both played wire-to-wire, trading points and games as they fought to finish the regular season on a high note.
Shastova, down 5-3, won a game and cut the deficit to one as the match’s end neared. The deciding blow was reached in the next game, though, and Okuwaki closed the match with a win.
The match encapsulated Syracuse’s season. SU remained in the fight until the end but couldn’t finish its matches, either in doubles or singles. As the ACC Tournament looms, its inability to close out matches is a massive point of concern for the Orange.
“We need to have a clearer vision of what we want to do in big points,” Limam said. “But I liked the fight they played with today.”
