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Miyuka Kimoto and Polina Kozyreva will represent Syracuse in doubles competition at the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championships. Kimoto and Kozyreva enter the tournament with a team-high 22 match victories each this season. The tournament will be hosted by the University of Illinois from May 23-28.

However, the No. 27 ranked doubles duo didn’t start the spring playing alongside each other. For Syracuse’s first four matches, head coach Younes Limam opted to pair Kozyreva with senior Sofya Treshcheva. As for Kimoto, she started the season with Japanese freshman Shiori Ito.

Although Limam did not give a reason for his switch so early on in the season, it was clear to see that Kimoto and Kozyreva’s games complemented one another. Throughout the season Kimoto thrived at the net, showing her quick reactions by parrying opponents’ shots. And if the freshman let a ball get by her, Kozyreva’s strong forehand would be there for a powerful return.

The new pairing of Kimoto and Kozyreva made its debut on Feb. 6 in a 7-0 win over Drexel University. The two won in the No. 1 doubles spot 6-2 over Lorie Lemongo and Mya Fuentes.

The tandem’s most crucial win came on April 3 against Notre Dame’s No. 31 ranked duo of Page Freeman and Maria Olivia Castedo. The 6-3 win propelled Syracuse into the lead as it obtained the doubles point. But the Orange would ultimately fall to the Fighting Irish.

This will be only the third time ever that Limam has led a Syracuse duo to the NCAA doubles championship in his eight years at the helm. Kimoto and Kozyreva join Gabriela Knutson and Valeria Salazar in 2016 and Knutson and Miranda Ramirez in 2018 as the only SU players to qualify for the doubles championship.