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Early on this season, Polina Kozyreva won 12 matches in a row, starting with a 3-1 lead against New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Shalom Salvi and ending against Virginia Tech’s Semra Asku. She won both sets against Boston University’s Navya Vadlamudi 2-0 (6-0, 6-0) and shut out Cornell’s Fatima El Ashram.

Former teammates Guzal Yusopova and Sofya Treshcheva both described Kozyreva as “hardworking,” which has translated into her role this year. Kozyreva is one of two seniors in charge of leading the Syracuse team this spring. Yusopova said Kozyreva started to take more of a leadership position as a junior last season.

Treshcheva said Kozyreva has become more responsible since she was a freshman, and now knows how to deal with stress and pressure much better. Kozyreva’s success hasn’t been affected by her spot in the lineup, winning matches in every singles spot besides No. 1 singles, where fellow senior Zeynep Erman currently resides.

Kozyreva has played with four different players in doubles, and has excelled with almost all of them. Her partnership with Miyuka Kimoto, who she went to the NCAA tournament with last year, has been particularly successful.

“We just want to have as many options as possible. I thought they did a really good job,” head coach Younes Limam said after Kimoto and Kozyreva won their first doubles match of the season against Buffalo.

Kozyreva has taken the sophomore Kimoto under her wing, and the pair performs well together, Treshcheva said. Kozyreva has also played with sophomore Shiori Ito, encouraging her between points and pushing her to battle.

“For Kozyreva, each point is an important point. It’s every single point she cares about. That’s what makes her stand out,” Yusopova said.

Most of Kozyreva’s success has come in the singles round, winning 12 of her 14 matches and only seeing a third set twice. Her first loss came against Clemson’s Jenna Thompson, who beat her 2-1. The loss accounts for two of the four total sets that Kozyreva has lost this season.

Kozyreva lost her most recent match against Georgia Tech’s Mahak Jain, who was then-No. 99 in the country. Kozyreva lost the first set 7-6 (10-8 tiebreaker), but would come back and lead the second set 4-3 before suffering an injury and retiring from the match.

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In all but one of her 12 wins, Kozyreva has won both sets and the match by a final score of 2-0.

“She plays with a lot of confidence… She understands her game extremely well,” Limam said.

The one outlier from Kozyreva’s long win streak took place against then-No. 23 Miami, facing Audrey Boch-Collins on Feb. 26. Kozyreva lost the first set 6-4, but bounced back and won the second set 6-4. She won the third and final set of the day 1-0 (18-16).

Kozyreva had to dig deep against Boch-Collins to pull out a win in the final set. The team match had already been decided, but Kozyreva and her opponent wanted to finish their individual match out. It went back-and-forth the whole time, going point-for-point until Kozyreva finally won the match 18-16.

In doubles, Kozyreva tries to set up Kimoto for success. The pair has won five of its seven doubles matches, which has helped Kimoto build her confidence, Limam said. Kimoto fell from the No. 1 singles spot and found herself in a four-match losing streak earlier in the season, but playing and winning matches with Kozyreva has helped her win two of her last four singles.

“She does pretty well changing tactics. For her, she knows how to change rhythm,” Treshcheva said. “That is how you find better players, players who battle for every single point and are focused and work for it.”

Published on March 22, 2023 at 10:00 pm