Syracuse’s youngest players have helped take Syracuse from an 0-7 start to its highest ranking of the season of 59.

Freshmen Valeria Salazar, Maria Avgerinos and Rhiann Newborn all have enjoyed recent success that has helped the team to wins over then-No. 25 Florida State, then-No. 34 Boston College and then-No. 48 Virginia Tech.

“They have been very important,” SU interim head coach Shelley George said. “They have been huge contributors both in singles and doubles. I only see a very bright future for the three of those players.”

Part of the reason the three have had success is their friendship and ability to play off one another. They’ve been good friends for months, especially Avgerinos and Salazar, who met over the summer before they even got to Syracuse (3-10, 3-5 Atlantic Coast) and have recently become doubles partners.

“We’re such good friends,” Salazar said. “We’re always fooling around. Especially Maria and I. It was just an easy friendship.”

This bond has helped the three of them all grow as players, as they are feeding off of one another on the court and gaining motivation from seeing each other succeed.

Against Florida State, both Avgerinos and Salazar had battles to win their singles matches and lead SU to victory. Avgerinos won in straight sets while Salazar won in a tight three-set matchup, taking the third set 7-5.

“In the Florida State match, I saw Valeria battling to win,” Avgerinos said. “And that gives me that little extra energy to keep fighting as well and get us the win.”

The improvement of the team — which coincided with a surge by the three freshmen — started at the beginning of ACC play, when Newborn won in a third-set tiebreak to give the Orange its first win of the season against Virginia Tech.

But before that, they struggled to win matches.

Salazar did not win a singles match from Jan. 11 until SU’s March 7 match against Florida State. Newborn had only two singles and one doubles win all year before the VT match. Avgerinos had been riding the bench until Breanna Bachini went down with an injury against the Hokies.

And as they struggled to both win and get on the court, they worked on improving their games in practice and private lessons.

“We put in the hard work,” Newborn said in an email. “And with our game increasing we take what we’ve practiced and incorporated it against these teams, which allowed us to win some of these tough matches.”

Newborn was doing well in doubles until her early season partner — co-captain Aleah Marrow — went down with a season-ending injury. She played with three different partners, including Avgerinos, but found no success.

Now George has given the duo of Avgerinos and Newborn a second chance. Against Boston College on March 23, the decision paid off, as the duo won 8-5 to give the Orange a much-needed doubles point.

This past Sunday, they came back from a break down against the No. 11 doubles team in the country from North Carolina to take the match to a tiebreak, in which they lost 7-4.

Now the pair, along with Salazar, are playing their best tennis heading into the Orange’s last six matches.

Published on March 31, 2014 at 10:39 pm

Contact Ryan: rlraigro@syr.edu