SU Falls to Florida State
By Gill Gross
Tennis Beat Reporter
Syracuse (14-4, 6-4 Atlantic Coast) suffered a let down in Tallahassee on Friday on the heels of its upset of No. 3 Georgia Tech the week prior. No. 19 Florida State (13-7, 5-5) snapped the Orange’s three match win streak with a 4-2 win.
The doubles point came down to the wire. After Dina Hegab/Masha Tritou lost quickly, 6-1, to Hule/Castaneda, No. 12 Gabriela Knutson/Miranda Ramirez evened the doubles. The pair extended their win streak to four matches with a 6-4 victory over No. 63 Touly/Rahmanparast. In the deciding match, Sofya Golubovskya/Anna Schkudun nearly came all the way back from down 2-5 but ultimately fell 6-4. The last time the Orange had lost the doubles point was March, 18 against Wake Forest: a match they went on to lose.
No. 10 Knutson faced an ailing opponent at first singles. No. 24 Carla Touly had to retire from the match after dropping the first set 6-4.
At second singles the woes continued for Miranda Ramirez. The sophomore has now dropped five straight singles matches.
At fourth singles, Schkudun enjoyed one of the best results of her season. Shkudun has gotten accustomed to long, hard-fought, ACC matches, but was able to breeze through a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Julia Mikulski.
The match was even at two with three matches remaining. Sofya Golubovskya’s 6-4, 6-3 loss to Gabriella Castaneda gave FSU the lead. Then, the Seminoles clinched it in a tight finishing 6-1, 7-5 win by Andrea Garcia over Libi Mesh.
Hegab’s match did not finish due to a mutual withdrawal hence the 4-2 final score. The Orange will travel accross the sunshine state now for an 11 a.m. match against Miami on Sunday.
