Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Head Coach Younes Limam decided it was time. Time to bring the doubles pair of Polina Kozyreva and Miyuka Kimoto back together for the first time this season, and the first time since the pair qualified for the 2021 NCAA Tournament. 

“We just want to have as many options as we can. They did a great job with them not playing recently and still managing to get that momentum back,” Limam said. 

The move paid off, as the pair won their doubles match 6-3 against Buffalo’s Ambre Amat and Pia Schwarz. Syracuse (6-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) took down Buffalo (6-2, 0-0 Mid Atlantic C) 7-0. However, it was much closer than the score made it seem. 

Almost all of Syracuse’s matches were very tightly contested, but the Orange always managed to pull out with a win. In the first doubles match, SU’s Zeynep Erman and Shiori Ito were tied up at 40 apiece six different times versus Buffalo’s Azra Deniz Comlek and Deanne Choo. Yet, they won the match 6-1. 

The final doubles match featured Ines Fonte and Viktoriya Kanapatskaya, who was the most dominant player for the Orange today. Although the doubles point had already been secured, the pair wanted the win and the doubles sweep against Gabriella Akopyan and Basak Akbas. The Orange used plenty of hard volleys that sent the ball very high in the air, even in one instance bouncing off the back cover and switched up the speed of their shots. 

“The biggest thing is I’m very pleased with how we’re playing the bigger points. A lot of the matches, it comes down to a single point. I’m very proud of how they play in the biggest points,” Limam said. 

Buffalo also didn’t give them their best, either. The Bulls had a lot of unforced errors where it served or returned the ball into the net, giving the Orange the point and in some matches likely the win. 

This occurred in one of the last singles matches, where Schwarz and Kimoto were tied at 30 in the third set and Schwarz returned the ball straight into the net, giving Kimoto the point. Kimoto would quickly seal the victory and the sweep for Syracuse.

Kimoto’s No. 1 singles match was intense, as she was dominated in the first set by a score of 6-3. She took a seat, recovered and talked to assistant coach Maddie Kobelt, and looked to try to come back from being down a set. She came out in the second set much more confident, and won the next nine points to win the second and take a 3-0 lead in the final set. She would pull out the come from behind victory 6-4, giving her team a singles point. 

Kimoto wouldn’t be the only one to have a comeback victory in the singles round, as Erman fell behind to Akbas 4-2 in the first set. She rattled off four straight points to take the first set 6-4, continuing that run to win the second set 6-3 and the singles point for Syracuse. 

Syracuse’s depth in the singles round has been extremely dominant throughout the six-match win streak, only dropping one set to Boston University. The best player for the Orange today was Kanapatskaya, who dominated her doubles match with Fonte 6-3. She would also dominate her singles match versus Comlek, and never seemed to be in trouble of losing. 

Fonte played well in her doubles match with Kanapatskaya, hitting numerous shots running backwards over the net. Fonte had a very hard fought match versus Buffalo’s Choo. Ito won the first set in extras 5-2, and then beat Choo easily 6-3 to win the second set and her singles point.

Ito was in a very back-and-forth match for the first set with Amat, as Kozyreva and Fonte finished their whole matches before Ito finished her first set. She would eventually win her first set in extras by a score of 7-5. She would continue this into her second set, where she fell behind 2-0, but recovered winning the set and the match 6-2. 

Syracuse finished perfectly in their nonconference matches, and will start ACC play this Saturday when they travel to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College (7-1, 0-0 ACC).

Published on February 13, 2023 at 8:55 pm