Sprinting to the right corner of the court, Gabriela Knutson attempted a backhand over the shoulder volley shot to save the point. She hit the bottom of the net.

Syracuse head coach Younes Limam jumped from his seated position and threw his hands up, directed toward No. 37 Knutson and Miranda Ramirez, who were down 0-2. A coach who rarely shows emotion toward his players during matches displayed a slight flash of fury in a desperate attempt at motivation.

At the match’s next stoppage time, Limam pulled Knutson and Ramirez together and told them to keep their aggression up against Louisville’s No. 51 Abbie Pahz and Mariana Humberg. Limam told them they were playing the right way, it just wasn’t paying off early, Knutson said. After the 90-second exchange, Limam looked over to the opposing bench, changed his tone and said, “Great game, good job,” in the direction of the U of L players.

“I wanted them to just hang in there,” Limam said, “If they stuck to the game plan, it would work out.”

Knutson and Ramirez responded by taking six of the final seven games to end their four-match losing streak and help Syracuse (12-3, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) take the doubles point en route to a 5-2 win over Louisville (13-5, 3-4). The win marks the pair’s first doubles win since March 2 after starting the season with seven straight victories.

Before Sunday’s match, Limam said Knutson and Ramirez “needed to get more confident playing together” and work more as a team. After losing to four straight opponents currently ranked in the top 60, Knutson and Ramirez needed to change their ways against No. 48 Louisville’s top pairing.

The match opened with shaky net play from both Knutson and Ramirez. Down 30-15 in the first game, Knutson and Ramirez missed back-to-back close volleys to drop serve.

After splitting the next two games, Pahz and Humberg played two back defense on serves in an attempt to throw Knutson and Ramirez off. At 2-2, Pahz hit low forehands directed toward Ramirez. After sinking two straight shots into the net to go down 3-2, Ramirez found her groove near the net which opened the door for Knutson to break through.

Knutson opened the sixth game with an easy volley winner after three consecutive off-balance shots high in the air which got the crowd into the match.

Later in that game, Knutson had a chance to close the game, up 40-15, on a misfired ball from Humberg, but hit the net instead. Knutson threw her hands up and kicked the ricocheted ball into the net. Limam looked over toward her and motioned his hands up and down, attempting to calm her down.

“You’re going to have ups and downs,” Limam said, “It’s tennis, but credit to the other team, they hung on awhile.”

Despite the small moment of frustration from Knutson, the Orange won the next two games, and led 4-3. During a time of stoppage, Limam told the pair not to panic and sticking to the plan, he said, because U of L would try to throw them off.

At the start of the eighth game of the match, Humberg attempted a drop serve, a move rarely used in college tennis, but Ramirez responded with a quick volley to the right corner of the court.

“It was really strange,” Knutson said, “I kind of took it as a little bit of disrespect, but I’m just happy we could overcome (Pahz and Humberg’s tactics).”

Leading up to match point at 5-3, Humberg motioned toward the umpire to lower the crowd noise in frustration. After a warning was issued to the crowd of nearly 50 people at Drumlins Country Club, U of L’s last-ditch effort ended when Ramirez swung a ball toward the back endline to close out the match, 6-3.

Ramirez and Knutson won SU’s first doubles match of the day, and the Orange picked up the doubles point after it dropping it in two previous matches.

“We did better than we did the last few matches,” Knutson said, “It’s not the best we can do, but I think we’re definitely on the right track.”

Published on March 25, 2018 at 4:08 pm

Contact KJ: kjedelma@syr.edu | @KJEdelman