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Up 5-0 against Cornell’s ​​Ashley Huang in the opening set, Polina Kozyreva took charge of the last point with ease. She served two bullets that Huang couldn’t handle, sent a backhand to the left corner, and the sixth point was won before anyone else had taken three sets to the scoreboard.

Kozyreva continued her dominant start to the season on Sunday with her second 6-0, 6-1 straight set victory of the season. Throughout the team’s first four matches, Kozyreva has jumped out to early leads. She has yet to drop a singles set this season and has only lost two doubles matches.

Kozyreva and her doubles partner, Sofya Treshcheva, also won their match 6-4 en route to a 6-1 Syracuse victory.

Playing in the fifth singles spot, Kozyreva’s aggressive play meant maintaining short rallies, which often lasted just three or four hits in the opening set. Head coach Younes Limam said that Kozyreva continued playing to her strengths, which included her power advantage over her opponents and ball placement.

“She set the tone very early in the match,” Limam said. “She has done a really good job of imposing her strengths onto her opponents.”

Kozyreva was done with the first set almost a half hour before the next set decision, which freshman Shiori Ito won. Once the second set started, Kozyreva and Huang began longer rallies, but she was still not able to secure a point until Kozyreva led 5-0, a point away from victory.

When the rallies started to last longer, Kozyreva was able to improve upon her consistency struggles from the team’s prior matches. In past sets, when she trailed in the Penn State doubles, Kozyreva has shown a tendency to rely on power when she’s tired or it isn’t advantageous. But against Cornell, she was more composed, improving her swing in the second set to keep her rallies going.

Kozyreva will look to continue her hot start next weekend when the team heads to Philadelphia to take on Drexel on Feb. 6.

“She’s been committing to her game plan, committing to her shots, and just playing with a lot of confidence,” Limam said.

Published on January 30, 2022 at 5:57 pm

Contact Wyatt: wbmiller@syr.edu