Miranda Ramirez lunged forward two steps and extended her racket. The ball sprung out of her racket’s strings, but never crossed the net. Ramirez crouched briefly and dropped her head. She and doubles partner Gabriela Knutson were at match point, and the mishit chip shot ended it.

Minutes later, Clemson clinched the doubles point with a win at third doubles. In its latest quest to overcome a lost doubles point, the Orange were unable to crawl back. No. 31 Syracuse (12-11, 5-9 Atlantic Coast) lost its fourth match in five, falling 4-3 to Clemson (10-14, 4-10) in its final regular season match, on Sunday.

After failing to win the first point, the match shaped similar to many others over the past four months. The Orange have won only nine doubles points this year, despite returning a Knutson and Ramirez pairing ranked No. 4 in the preseason. On Sunday, the two, now ranked No. 56, lost 6-1 to No. 8 Marie Leduc and Fernanda Navarro for their sixth loss in eight matches.

Clemson clinched the doubles point when Alex Angyalosy and Laura Marti defeated Masha Tritou and Guzal Yusupova at third doubles, 6-4. The two pairings traded points throughout before Angyalosy and Marti grabbed a crucial break at the end. It was the second consecutive match that Tritou replaced senior Dina Hegab during doubles, and the eighth straight lost doubles point for SU. No. 90 Sofya Golubovskaya and Sonya Treshcheva’s trailed 6-5  in their unfinished match.

But Syracuse still had a chance to win in singles if its depth produced. On April 5, the Orange overcame a lost doubles point to defeat Pittsburgh, another lower-tier ACC opponent, by rattling off five singles wins. Clemson and its three conference wins presented a similar opportunity.

With three consecutive losses, however, Syracuse failed to complete the comeback. Yusupova, Golubovskaya and Libi Mesh all lost in straight sets, winning only 13 games combined. Neither of the three have won a singles match over SU’s last three matches.

After the Tigers had already clinched the match, No. 19 Knutson defeated her second consecutive ranked opponent — Clemson’s No. 82 Leduc — 4-6 6-1 1-0 (10-8) — and continued to help her seeding for the NCAA Singles Championship. Ramirez and Hegab also won for the Orange.

In the first month of its season, SU made the ITA National Indoor Team Championship, achieved a program-high ranking of No. 10 and a manufactured a 4-2 win over then-No. 9 Michigan. But in the weeks that followed, Syracuse stumbled to a bottom-half finish in conference play.

Next up for the Orange is a first or second round matchup in the ACC tournament that begins on Wednesday in Cary, North Carolina Last year, SU advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Georgia Tech.

Published on April 14, 2019 at 4:28 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew