As No. 17 Gabriela Knutson walked over to assistant coach Shelley George midway through the first set of her singles match, she shook her head in frustration. The SU junior, who has only dropped one set all season, was in danger of dropping another after being down 4-1 to Boston College’s Asiya Dair at first singles.  

Instead of trying to calm Knutson down, George told her to play more balls and be aggressive. Knutson had to “really get into the point,” George said to her, because that’s how she was generating wins.

Knutson got up from the bench, shook out her hands and legs and proceeded to win 11 of the final 12 games en route to a 6-4, 6-1 victory. Her singles win put the Orange (5-1, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) up 3-0 on the way to a 5-2 team win over Boston College (3-3, 0-2) on Friday at Drumlins Country Club.

Knutson started off by sweeping the first game with two early volleys to go up 1-0, but she fell into a hole quickly. Knutson wasn’t moving her legs enough, she said, which led her to miss early shots.

“I kept flat-footing my shots,” Knutson said, “Even though I was trying to move, I was just really flat.”

Down 3-1, Knutson over-shot her backhand twice in a row. Leading up to a break in action, the junior misfired on a return which led to her interaction with George. George’s advice for Knutson to stay aggressive against Dair gave Knutson the confidence to come back in the first set, Knutson said.

“I should probably wait more,” Knutson said, “but I usually end up getting more aggressive and impatient, and I’m not supposed to do that at all, but it’s kind of my game, it’s who I am.”

Knutson knew she had to force longer rallies to close out the first set to go on a long run. Waiting on a “mistake shot” from Dair was key, Knutson said, to come back in the first set.

As the first set was tied 4-4, 40-40, the crowd began cheering for the first time at Drumlins leading up to the deciding game-point. As Dair fired the ninth shot of the point past the end-line to surrender her lead, Knutson hurried over to George and let out a big smile. Frustrated, Dair slammed her racket onto the bench as it ricocheted, and sat in silence.

“I knew that I was the better player on the court,” Knutson said, “and if I could just hit five balls, I knew she would miss that sixth one.”

The next game, Knutson served for set point, up 40-15, and won on an unforced error. She avoided her slow start by winning five straight games to give her the first set win, 6-4.

After her early struggles, Knutson controlled the second set early on as she went up 3-1. During the first point following stoppage, Knutson fought off an 11 shot exchange and pinned a ball in the back right corner past the outstretched arms of Dair, a shot which led to more cheers from the Drumlins crowd.

Down 5-1 in the second set, Dair approached BC’s head coach, Nigel Bentley, and put her hands to her face. Soon after, she hung her head as Bentley talked to her following the final point of the match. Knutson, on the other hand, was all smiles.

In the second set, Knutson finally found her rhythm, she said, which helped her cruise to victory.

“(Knutson) didn’t get ahead of herself,” head coach Younes Limam said, “and that’s tough to do when you’re playing behind.”

Published on February 16, 2018 at 8:52 pm

Contact KJ: kjedelma@syr.edu | @KJEdelman