Kozyreva Provides Bright Spot in Loss to NC State
Polina Kozyreva provided a bright spot as she won her match as Syracuse fell 6 - 1 to the #2 ranked NC State Wolfpack at Drumlins Tennis Club in Syracuse. It’s their 4th loss in a row as they continue to struggle against top ranked opponents.
The first match of the day concluded quickly as the duo of Miyuka Kimoto and Polina Kozyreva fell to NC State’s Jaeda Daniel and Neil Miller. Daniel and Miller are the #11 ranked duo in the country for women’s tennis and proved their standing in their dominating performance. Daniel’s strong left-handed stroke was too much to handle for the Orange as NC State took that match 6 – 0 and the eventual doubles match.
After having to forfeit the first singles match because of an injury to Sofya Treshcheva, Syracuse quickly fell behind 2 – 0 against NC State. Syracuse attempted to battle back but the deficit proved too much for the Orange as Syracuse had to win 4 of the 5 singles matches to get the win on the day.
Unfortunately for the Orange, Shiori Ito and Kimoto both lost their matches to give the win in favor of NC State. Kanapatskaya and her opponent, NC State’s Abigail Rencheli, fought to three sets in a hard match. There were several contentious moments on the court with frustrations being voiced by both players several times. After a back and forth third set tiebreak, Rencheli was able to put away Kanapatskaya in a hard-fought match for both participants.
“I think she hung in there, I was very pleased on how she started the match,” Coach Younes Limam said about how Kanapatskaya performed mentally in the match.
Polina Kozyreva was the sole win for Syracuse on the day. She continues to be one of the strongest members of this Syracuse team. Her win today brings her total to 11 singles wins on the season and gives her 4 wins in ACC play, the most of any player on the tennis team.
“She’s been making some huge strides and we’re very proud of her,” Coach Limam said on Kozyreva’s strong season so far for Syracuse.
Syracuse falls to 7-8 for the season and 1-7 against ACC opponents. The match finishes a stretch against top 25 ranked opponents for the Orange as well as teams from North Carolina after facing off against UNC, Duke, and Wake Forest in the last couple weeks.
Syracuse hopes to pick up their 2nd ACC win as they have another weekend of two matches when they play host to Louisville on Friday and Notre Dame next Sunday. Louisville will be the first team that isn’t ranked in the top 25 Syracuse will face off against since they defeated Clemson on March 6th.