Before Miranda Ramirez committed to Syracuse, she worked with French tennis coach Thomas Finck. His coaching style centered around aggressiveness from the baseline, then attacking the net. She played singles at the time, but it’s carried over to her partnership with Gabriela Knutson at SU’s first doubles.

The two have focused on pushing forward recently, at times committing both players to the net in an effort to finish points with volleys and overhead smashes. They want to take charge of points, and attack opponents’ passive play.

That mentality has led to Knutson and Ramirez winning four of their last five matches together, with one unfinished. No. 27 Syracuse (8-4, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) has taken four consecutive doubles points, bouncing back from dropping the previous five. Overall, the Orange’s top doubles team is 8-3, including a 7-5 loss to the then-No. 1 doubles pairing in the country from Pepperdine.

“We try to play more like a men’s doubles team and go for volleys,” Knutson said on Feb. 1.

Doubles, typically the first point played in a dual, can set the momentum and tone of the match going forward, Ramirez said. During Syracuse’s four-game losing streak earlier this season, the Orange lost doubles every time. In three of those four matches, doubles was played first.

From the back, players aren’t looking for winners. Their role is to serve and place ground shots in areas of the court that force opponents to give high-percentage looks to the teammate at the net.

“Like an alley-oop in basketball, ‘How can I get it closer to the rim where someone can be a finisher,’” said Luke Jensen, regarding the mentality of the baseline player. “You never want to be the hero. You want your partner to be the hero.”

For the Orange’s top pair, that’s typically Ramirez, in the back, trying to set up the more powerful player, Knutson, at the net. From a service standpoint, Ramirez isn’t able to go through returners, but rather uses slice and spin to push opponents off the court and into awkward shots. In their latest home match against Harvard, they used their complementary play as well as a strong return game to cruise to a 6-2 win over Natasha Gonzalez and Erica Oosterhout.

Returning for the match, Ramirez started the game with a hard return right at Gonzalez. The Harvard junior couldn’t get her volley over the net. Then at 15-all, Knutson’s volley winner gave Syracuse the lead again. Later in the same game, a Ramirez return forced a high, looping return, and Knutson finished the match with an overhead winner.

“We want to finish at the net, we want to take charge of our points,” Ramirez said after the match, “and I think that’s what we did well today.”

The conditions at Syracuse’s home court, Drumlins Country Club, lend to the fast-paced, attacking style that the Orange want to implement, Jensen said. It’s an indoor venue, taking out external factors like weather, which helps ease players into a rhythm.

After every point, win or lose, Knutson and Ramirez come together for a brief second, exchange a fist bump, then move to their respective areas of the court to set up for the next point. Sometimes, they take an extra second, put their hands over their mouths to conceal what they’re saying. Of late, their next move after the discussions typically include charging the net and finishing rallies quickly.

“You’re talking about four- or five-layer chess, where your opponent moves, and your opponent’s partner moves,” Jensen said, “and you’re trying to find angles and the windows are really small.”

—    Staff Writer Andrew Crane contributed reporting to this story.

Published on February 27, 2019 at 10:19 pm

Contact Arabdho: armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder