What has Been the Key to Syracuse Tennis’ Success at Home?
Josh Richardson | @joshrichy_04
Syracuse Tennis finished up its regular season slate with matches against 33rd ranked Notre Dame and Louisville this weekend. The Orange come in 9-9 on the season with all nine of their wins coming at Drumlins. Head Coach Younes Limam knows the type of home-court advantage he has when the season gets underway, and there are a multitude of reasons as to why SU is just so dominant playing in Drumlins.
Just how Good is Syracuse at Home?
The short answer: Dominant. The long answer: Extremely Dominant. Since the 1998-99 season, Syracuse has only had one year it finished below .500 at home. That’s good for winning seasons in 23 of the last 24 years.
But Why?
Some easy answers could be that playing in front of the Drumlins crowd, family, and friends gets each player excited and ready to play, or that it’s just better to not have to travel and to be in a more comfortable and relaxed setting than a hotel room. But really, it has to do with the environment and nature of the courts themselves.
- Game Quality
Syracuse plays indoors, mainly because… well it’s Syracuse. You can’t play outdoor tennis from January – April like you can in Florida. Because of that, the schools that SU sets in its schedule in the beginning of the season tend to be out of conference opponents also from the northeast. That allows Syracuse to travel to North Carolina when the weather is nice for matches against Duke, and UNC, and gives the opportunity for trips to Florida against FSU and Miami. With the ACC being one of, if not the best conference for women’s tennis, those out of conference matches tend to be a cakewalk for SU. The Orange take care of business handily in regular fashion. Then, when they travel to match up against ACC schools, the competition gets stiff and much more difficult to win matches, especially on the road.
- Courts
When you play indoors, there is no impact from the weather. Earth, Wind, and Fire have no say in the outcome of any match. Indoor courts tend to play faster than outdoors, mainly because of that lack of impact. The courts are also designed with a lack of artificial surfaces which allows for less bad bounces and quicker direction of the ball from point A to point B. While moving quicker, it forces the bounce height to be lower.
These are all things SU has mastered. Adapting its game for success playing on its homecourt is something that Coach Limam has worked on day in and day out in practice. When teams from the south or teams who don’t normally play indoors come to Drumlins, the Orange have an advantage. And if the past is any representation of the future, the Orange will continue to have tremendous success at 800 Nottingham Rd.
