Luke Jensen said it’s just part of the learning process for his No. 1 singles player CC Sardinha. As Syracuse defeated Bucknell 6-1 at Drumlins Tennis Center Sunday, the freshman had the lone loss for the Orange.

She had her chances to emerge victorious, playing a complete second set, but was too cautious in the first and third sets, which led to close losses.

While Sardinha suffered a tough setback, the rest of the Orange cruised in the victory. Alessondra Parra, Eleanor Peters and Christina Tan all quickly beat their respective opponents for Syracuse (10-2). Peters and Tan both won their matches (6-0, 6-0).

‘(Bucknell has) a crew that no matter what the score is, they’re going to be fighting, they’re hanging in there, they’re going to be scrapping,’ said head coach Luke Jensen. ‘If you don’t put them away, they’re going to hang around and that’s exactly what happened today.’

By the time Sardinha faced her opponent, Syracuse had already won the team dual match. While her teammates capitalized on early leads in overwhelming victories, Sardinha failed to finish off her opposition. She was ahead in the first set 5-2, but she let her opponent come back and tie it 6-6, sending the set into a tiebreaker. Jensen said the lead slipped away because she was not being aggressive enough. Assistant coach Shelley George also said that Sardinha was not coming to net at the right times.

Sardinha said she felt a little off during the first set and she let her opponent, Tania Varela, set the pace. This meant long rallies from the baseline, instead of attacking shots or coming to net.

The tiebreaker, like the rest of the first set, was back and forth. The score was tied on six different occasions. Yet again, Sardinha was trying to keep the ball in play instead of going for the kill. It finally ended at 10-7 with Varela after a long baseline rally and a shot wide left by Sardinha.

‘I just let a couple things get to me a little too much,’ Sardinha said. ‘She was being more consistent and I think I tried to do a little too much sometimes, and I wasn’t recognizing shots that I should have recognized and come to the net.’

But the second set was not like the first. Sardinha attacked the ball and did not let her opponent stay in her comfort zone at the baseline. The first two games of the set close, but after that it was all Sardinha. Over the next three games, Varela only scored a total of 15 points. She won the second set (6-0).

‘We had her come out in the second set and she started hitting through the shots a little more and coming to the net and just a little bit more aggressive play in the second set,’ George said.

A tiebreaker to 10 was substituted for the third set because the match was already decided as a Syracuse victory. George said that there were a few fluke errors in the tiebreaker that helped Valera win, such as shots that went long or into the net.

‘(Varela) definitely picked up her game in the second set,’ said co-captain Christina Tan. ‘She played completely different. I think she was being a little bit more offensive, I mean CC was too, but she came up short.’

The small mistakes that lead to Sardinha’s loss were probably tied to the strange situation. She and Tan believe she would have won the match if it had gone to a third set, instead of the shortened 10-point tiebreaker. Sardinha was coming off the 6-0 win and was attacking the ball well. They said she would have likely continued playing this way if she had more time.

‘The only thing she didn’t do well is put the first set away,’ Jensen said. ‘Up 5-2, you put that away. Look what happened in the second set: 6-0, so that’s a 2-0 score. You let anyone at this D I level, give them some confidence, give them some hope that they’re going to win the match, that’s going to happen.’

alguggen@syr.edu