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After an eight-day break, Syracuse hoped to relinquish its three-game losing streak against North Carolina State. Since falling to Georgia Tech 3-4 and Duke 1-6, the Orange most recently lost to then-No. 4 North Carolina 0-7 on March 3, dropping to 2-3 in ACC play. The last time Syracuse went scoreless in a match was against then-No. 20 Georgia Tech 0-4 on April 20, 2023, during the first round of the ACC tournament.

The Orange hadn’t beaten NC State since April 22, 2019 losing four straight against the Wolfpack. But in its most competitive match of the season, No. 50 Syracuse (9-4, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) broke its three-game losing streak against No. 8 NC State (13-4, 3-1 ACC) 4-3.

Syracuse has struggled in its doubles matchups all season, losing the point in its five previous matches. The Orange haven’t won a doubles point since defeating the University of Massachusetts 4-0 on Feb. 18. But Syracuse failed to break the streak against NC State.

Ines Fonte and Polina Kozyreva fell to NC State’s Anna Zyryanova and Sophie Abrams 6-0 in the No. 2 doubles match, while the Wolfpack’s Gabriella Broadfoot and Abigail Rencheli defeated Emilie Elde and Shiori Ito 6-3 in the No. 3 doubles match. The sole doubles win of the day came from Syracuse’s Viktoriya Kanapatskaya and Miyuka Kimoto, who took the No. 1 doubles spot. The pair defeated Amelia Rajecki and Maddy Zampardo 5-2.

While NC State quickly secured the doubles point, Syracuse put up a fight in the singles matchups. The only singles losses of the day came when Fonte lost to Gina Dittmann 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 5 singles spot, and NC State’s Zampardo defeated Ito 6-4, 6-3 in the No. 6 spot.

But in the top singles matchup, Kimoto faced Rajecki, and defeated her 7-6 in both sets. Syracuse continued dominating the singles matches in the second, third, and fourth spots, with all of the matches going to three sets. NC State’s Rencheli took on Elde in the No. 2 spot, winning the first set 6-4. But Elde bounced back, winning the second 7-6 and the third 6-4.

The No. 3 singles spot was another close matchup between Anastasia Sysoeva and Zyryanova. Sysoeva fell to Zyryanova 6-2 in the first set but won the second and third 6-4. In the No. 4 singles spot, Kozyreva defeated Abrams 6-3 in the first set. But the NC State senior forced a third. Yet Kozyreva won the final set 6-2 and secured the win for the Orange.

Syracuse will host Wake Forest Sunday before traveling to Charlottesville, Va., Blacksburg, Va., Tallahassee, Fla., and Coral Gables, Fla., to compete against Virginia Tech, Florida State, and the University of Miami, respectively.

Published on March 15, 2024 at 8:39 pm

Contact Emma: ecstark@syr.edu