Less than 12 hours before Syracuse’s match against Pepperdine began, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced that all matches on Friday were moved up an hour. They would also start with singles, as the second snowstorm in a week was predicted to strike Seattle later in the day.

For Syracuse, that presented an opportunity to avoid the No. 1 and No. 12 doubles pairs in the country on Pepperdine’s roster. Clinch in singles, and SU didn’t have to worry about doubles, where it has struggled.

But throughout the match, No. 10 Syracuse (4-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) couldn’t finish either its singles or doubles matches when it needed to, and watched a potential upset slip away in a 4-3 loss to No. 7 Pepperdine (3-0) in the first round of the ITA National Women’s Team Indoor Championship in Seattle. It was the third-straight loss for the Orange, who started the spring season undefeated.

After a Feb. 1 loss to Virginia, Sonya Treshcheva wore a full-length arm sleeve and wore multiple bags of ice. She had also struggled since the first two matches of the season. Libi Mesh was slotted at sixth singles, while Masha Tritou was paired with Sofya Golubovskaya at second doubles.

Mesh won her first set against Dzina Milovanovic 6-4. After dropping the second set 6-2, she was in a third-set tiebreaker. Mesh jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but lost the next four points. She recovered, won the last two, and gave Syracuse its third point. Without it, there would have been no doubles.

No. 48 Gabriela Knutson snapped a three-game losing streak in singles and defeated Ashley Lahey 6-2, 6-1, Syracuse’s first point. But the lead was quickly erased, as Guzal Yusupova lost in straight sets to Adrijana Lekaj, ending Yusupova’s three-game winning streak.

After dropping her first set, Golubovskaya was tied 5-5 and down 0-40. She earned the last four points of the game, broke No. 13 Evgeniya Levashova for the lead, and closed out the set the next game. In the third set, Golubovskaya was up 3-1, but only won one game after that, dropping the set 6-4.

No. 67 Miranda Ramirez defeated No. 52 Jessica Failla in three sets, while Dina Hegab lost in three. Ramirez won the last two sets while Hegab blew an early lead. For Hegab, it marked her third-straight loss after clinching SU’s first four matches.

In doubles, Knutson and Ramirez took the first game against Lahey and Levashova, but couldn’t build on their lead. They broke the No. 1 pair in the country twice and went up 4-2, but lost the next two games.

Similar things happened at third doubles. Hegab and Yusupova went up 4-2 after breaking Daria Kuczer and Milovanovic, but lost the next four games. Down 5-4 Yusupova and Hegab were up 40-0, but dropped the last four points, giving Pepperdine the clinching point.

Tritou and Golubovskaya were tied 4-4 in their doubles match, which was abandoned.

To get to Seattle, Syracuse defeated then-No. 9 Michigan and Purdue, who knocked off then-No. 12 Ole Miss. In those matches, the Orange finished their matches deep into the sets. But against, Virginia and Pepperdine, as well as unranked Boston College, SU failed to control sets. Unable to build commanding leads, and ultimately, unable to win.

Syracuse is back in action tomorrow at a time yet to be decided against No. 16 Ohio State (3-2). The Buckeyes lost, 4-3, to No. 4 Duke (6-0) earlier today.

Published on February 8, 2019 at 3:57 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew