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Syracuse began the morning with a large advantage. The Eagles only had four participants in the contest. This resulted in one doubles and two singles forfeits. The forfeits meant the Orange had to win just one doubles match to receive the doubles points and one singles match to win the entire contest.

Despite just one sleep between matches, the Syracuse lineup was very different Saturday than it was on Friday against No. 15 Virginia.

Head coach Younes Limam went with a far different lineup against CSU. The first two doubles tandems were mixed from the Virginia matchup. Against the Cavaliers, Viktoria Kanapatskya and Ines Fonte were defeated 6-0. Zeynep Erman and Polina Kozyreva lost the doubles No. 2 6-3. The No. 3 doubles featured Shiori Ito and Miyuka Kimoto, but went unfinished due to the prior two defeats. The forfeited doubles match allowed Limam to rest two of his players. Kozyreva and Kimoto both were rested in doubles matches before competing in singles matches.

The No. 1 doubles featured Erman and Fonte. After getting out to a 2-0 lead, the duo dropped their next two games to Megan Etienne and Emperess Johnson. Knotted at two apiece, the Orange pair would win their next three matches. Coppin State won the eighth game, but Syracuse was able to close out the match, winning the final two games.

The three wins by Etienne and Johnson were the only of the day for the Eagles.

The duo of Erman and Fonte was a new look for the Orange doubles, however, it was mostly effective. In the third and fourth games, there seemed to be some miscommunications at times. Nonetheless, the duo held strong and dominated the majority of the match.

Kanapatskya and Ito played in the No. 2 doubles spot and owned the match against Mackenzie Jones and Kenyange Kaounde from the jump. Syracuse won this matchup 6-0, clinching the doubles points for the Orange before the doubles one even finished.

Ito was bumped up to the No. 2 spot because of Koyzyreva being rested. The combination was very successful on Saturday, Limam said. described as partially experimentation of combinations as well as a way to rest his players.

When asked about the decision to switch up his doubles duos Limam said, “It was a little bit of both (experimentation and resting). We needed to see a few more combinations before we make a decision about tomorrow (Virginia Tech).”

Limam added that comfortability with new partners played a role, and the changed combinations performed better against Coppin State than Virginia.

In singles, the Orange also began with multiple legs up on the Eagles. Not only was CSU forced to forfeit two of their singles matches because of Iva Jankovic and Kristina Georgieva being injured, but they also had to face two fresh Orange athletes.

After not participating in doubles, Kimoto was well rested and geared up to win against CSU’s Etienne. Kimoto won both sets 6-0. It was a huge win for the sophomore after losing her last four singles matches. Kimoto battled out of the three spot in the last two matches so a move to the one spot worked well.

In singles two, Kozyreva stayed undefeated defeating Jones. Kozyreva was able to rest throughout the entire doubles matches, allowing her to come out strong and never look back in singles.

Ito and Fonte both won their singles matches as well.

In total, the Orange won games by a score of 60-3.

Kanapataska and Erman were able to rest in singles because of Coppin State’s two forfeits. Limam felt that the rest was earned in the midst of the three match weekend.

“It was a decision to see who was the most ready to go and I think at this point in the season, we had a physical match yesterday and it was just trying to see who needed to play a bit more and who needed the rest,” Limam said.

With a big matchup against the Hokies looming tomorrow morning, the rest and less physical matches of today should benefit the Orange.

Published on March 4, 2023 at 2:36 pm

Contact Aiden at: amstepan@syr.edu | @AidenStepansky