When Maddie Kobelt arrived at Syracuse as a freshman, she played doubles with experienced junior Emily Harman and learned what it took to win at the college level.

Now a senior, Kobelt and her co-captain Aleah Marrow must do what Harman did for Kobelt, and play doubles with two of the most talented freshmen on the team, Valeria Salazar and Rhiann Newborn.

“The captains are huge because they know the playbook,” former Syracuse head coach Luke Jensen said. “They know exactly when the coaches call something or they need to call something. And they can just break the huddle with confidence. And all the freshman has to do is follow it.”

Jensen resigned on Wednesday, and Shelley George will be the interim head coach.

So far this season, the senior-freshman double pairs have experienced mixed results, with the team of Kobelt and Salazar starting the season 1-1 with one unfinished match, and Marrow and Newborn starting the year 1-1, as well.

While the results seem mixed on paper, Jensen likes what he has seen from the two newcomers so far, especially when it comes to mental toughness.

“You could see it right away, they weren’t afraid of the competition,” Jensen said. “Our away matches have really shown what they’ve added to our (team) dynamic. They’ve just played singles and doubles tough as nails.”

It did not come as easy as it may seem for Salazar and Newborn when they first arrived on campus. In their respective hometowns, their parents home-schooled them for most of their lives, so adjusting to a large campus took some time.

“It was really tough, extremely tough,” Newborn said. “But I got through it and now I’m just going to keep on focusing on my schoolwork and keep on focusing on practicing and I should be good.”

Jensen said he did not make the doubles pairings to group seniors and freshmen.

Instead, he said while the captains’ leadership played a role, the basis behind the decision was that the pairings clicked immediately.

“It just happens to be that those two teams were extremely explosive and clicked in right away,” Jensen said. “That’s because we have great leadership.”

For Newborn and Marrow, part of the reason the two have clicked so quickly can be attributed to the similar style the two play, as they both play an aggressive style of tennis.

“She’s a good player,” Marrow said. “She has a lot of power, she’s explosive as well and that kind of helps me out on the court.”

For Kobelt and Salazar, the beginning of the season was not the first time the two played together.

They played as partners last semester in some tune-up tournaments and connected quickly.

“I think Valeria handles herself very well on the court,” Kobelt said. “She’s very mature for her age as far as handling whatever comes our way. We clicked right away.”

Learning from Kobelt has helped Salazar adjust to playing college tennis.

“She’s a very good doubles player,” Salazar said. “She helps me a lot. She gives me confidence and she is obviously more experienced than I am.”

Published on January 30, 2014 at 3:08 am

Contact Ryan: rlraigro@syr.edu