Syracuse Tennis Falls Under .500 After Loss to Louisville

By Yaw Bonsu

CitrusTV’s Tennis Beat Reporter

Syracuse fell to Louisville (4-2) 4-3 after a pivotal seventh match secured the Cardinals’ victory. 

In doubles, Louisville won 2-0 after taking down the grad student duo of Natalie Novotna and Miranda Ramirez. That was followed by 6-0 victory over No. 2 pair Guzal Yusupova and Sofya  Treshcheva who played their first match of the season together.

Syracuse continued its slow start in singles play. The Cardinals made quick work of the No. 4 and No.3 singles as Miranda Ramirez was defeated 1-6, 6-0. That was followed by the afternoon’s fastest match which Guzal Yusupova lost 0-6 0-6. 

Despite being down 3-0, the Orange managed to mount a near comeback thanks to Virginia Tech transfer Natalie Novotna who kept up her undefeated start in singles play, notching a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Raven Neely. 

No.1 singles Viktoriya Kanapatskaya won 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 versus Nikolina Jovic, leaving the Orange trailing by only one match point.

Sophomore Polina Kozyreva faced the pressure of needing a win to force a seventh match. Kozyreva notched a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victory over the Cardinals’ Tatiana Simova to tie the dual at three. From there, No. 5 singles Ines Fonte was left to secure the Orange win versus Rhea Verma. 

Louisville managed to stop the SU comeback short as Simova flew high over Fonte 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, to win the deciding point for the Cardinals.

The Orange have their two-dual win streak snapped and faces another ACC foe on Sunday. Syracuse takes on Notre Dame (7-3) at 12 p.m. 

ybonsu@citrustv.net | @yawbonsu27