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After a 4-3 loss against Virginia Tech, the Orange traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, to match up against the No. 9 ranked Virginia Cavaliers. But SU was unable to bounce back, losing 6-1.

During doubles play, the Orange had a rough time keeping up with Virginia. In their No. 2 doubles match, Polina Kozyreva and Miyuka Kimoto matched up against Amber O’Dell and Sofia Munera, who ranked No. 4 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s preseason doubles rankings. Kozyreva and Kimoto had a rough time combatting the in-sync style of play from the Cavaliers duo, and they lost 6-0.

In their No. 3 doubles match, Viktoriya Kanapatskaya and Ines Fonte also were unable to win a game. They couldn’t keep up with Sara Ziodato and Natasha Subhash, who ranked top 10 in ITA preseason singles and doubles rankings.

Shiori Ito and Sofya Treshcheva split the first few games to tie 2-2 in their No. 1 doubles match, before dropping the next two games. Their match would go unfinished, as Virginia earned its point from doubles play to lead 1-0 in the match.

Much of the same difficulty SU experienced in doubles was repeated during its singles play. Kanapatskaya was subjugated by her opponent in her No. 1 singles match, losing her sets 6-0, and 6-2.

Zeynep Erman and Fonte both were overmatched in their No. 4 and No. 6 matches, eventually dropping their matches after staying close at first. Kimoto and Ito both did the best they could during their No. 2 and No. 5 singles matches, both winning only four games combined in their two sets.

The No. 3 singles match was the only close matchup of the day, including SU’s Kozyreva and Virginia’s Munera. The first set was a series of back and forths, as Kozyreva combatted Munera with her hard-hitting shots. The series went to a tiebreaker, but Munera got the better of Kozyreva in the end winning the tiebreaker (7-5). Kozyreva would battle back and win the next two sets by a comfortable lead, keeping her undefeated singles streak.

Published on February 27, 2022 at 3:55 pm

Contact Irie: irharris@syr.edu