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The trainer jogged over to the court. This time it was Zeynep Erman who was hurting and motioning to her back. She would be one of three players today that was seen by the trainer for an injury. 

After playing three very physical matches in three days, No. 16 Syracuse (11-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) defeated No. 44 Virginia Tech (8-5, 0-4 ACC) 5-2. 

“The schedule is in our favor so far. This is a much needed weekend off, next weekend,” head coach Younes Limam said. “We’ll practice and recover and take care of some minor injuries here and there.” 

The Orange had yet to win the doubles point against an ACC opponent, losing the doubles round to Boston College, Florida State, Miami and Virginia. That changed today, as the pairs of Shiori Ito and Viktoriya Kanapatskaya and Polina Kozyreva and Miyuka Kimoto both won their matches 6-3.

The No. 1 doubles match ended 4-3 Syracuse in an unfinished match between SU’s Erman and Ines Fonte, and Virginia Tech’s Katie Andreini and Dariya Radulova. 

Erman and Fonte were in very good spirits throughout the match, and were playing extremely well together. Fonte was dominant in front of the net while Erman sat in the back and covered for any shot that Fonte could not reach. 

Andreini hit a big spike that hit Fonte in the arm at the front of the net — but still bounced off her over the net — which later resulted in Fonte returning a spike of her own. 

Ito and Kanapatskaya played very well together in their doubles match. Ito continued to mix up the speed of her shots, showing off many different types of shots that would keep VT’s Semra Aksu and Tamara Barad Itzhaki guessing. At the net, Kanapatskaya was dominant, battling down returning shots and serving massive spikes to give her team points. Kozyreva and Kimoto clinched the doubles point following Ito and Kanapatskaya’s win. 

Later in the match, up 4-3 in sets but down 30-15, Syracuse’s opposition double-faulted three times in a row to hand Syracuse a 5-3 lead. Kimoto, with a renewed confidence in herself, would seal the deal for the Orange to win the match plus the doubles point. 

“(Kimoto) played really good, and that gave her a lot of confidence going into her singles, and mentally, she played extremely well,” Limam said. “It’s tough, when you lose a lot of matches back to back, you start doubting a little bit. I couldn’t be prouder (of her).” 

Kimoto would match up in the No. 4 singles slot against Virginia Tech’s Barad Itzhaki, who had played in the number one slot for the Hokies last season. Kimoto would dominate from start to finish, winning 2-0 (6-0, 6-0). She secured two points for her team, but also the win for the Orange. She was the third singles match to finish, but the first to defeat her opponent.

The first match to finish was in the No. 5 between SU’s Fonte and VT’s Erika Cheng. Fonte continued her great play and won the first set 6-0. Cheng asked for the trainer for an apparent lower body injury, and retired to give the Orange its second point of the day. 

The second match that ended due to injury was in the No. 1 singles spot. Erman asked for the trainer because of a back injury that has seemingly haunted her for the last couple of weeks. She eventually retired after trying to fight through it. 

“I think (having the lead) had a lot to do with (retiring Erman). We felt good on all the courts and we have to pick our battles, and for today’s match, we thought we would still be okay if we give away that point,” Limam said. 

Kozyreva had moved up to the No. 3 in singles for the second time this season, but the first time when the Orange had a full lineup. She won her singles match 2-0 (6-2, 6-2) to improve her record this season to 12-0 in singles. 

Lastly, the lone Syracuse player to be defeated in singles was Ito. She convincingly won the first set 6-3, but Andreini would bounce back winning the second set by the same score. Since the match had already ended, they decided to play a first to 10, win by two, to which Andreini dominated and won 10-3. 

“I thought today was a big day for us. We had a great weekend last weekend,” Limam said. “But it was very important for us to really play to our level again, confirming it wasn’t a fluke last weekend.”

Published on March 5, 2023 at 5:25 pm