Syracuse falls to No. 1 North Carolina 6-1, drops 4th straight
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Syracuse (11-5, 4-5 Atlantic Coast) saw its losing streak extend to five with a 6-1 loss to No. 1 North Carolina (22-0, 7-0 ACC) in the team’s final outing at Drumlins Country Club.
The Orange entered the match short-handed, with Ines Fonte missing the contest due to injury. With a roster of just six, SU was forced to forfeit a doubles and singles match, as six is the minimum required to compete. With this advantage, Tar Heels only needed to win one of the two doubles matches to secure the point, doing so in just 26 minutes.
In the top doubles spot, Miyuka Kimoto and Zeynep Erman were matched up against Reese Brantmeier and Elizabeth Scotty, the No. 13-ranked doubles pair in the country. Kimoto and Erman couldn’t match North Carolina’s high intensity and pace and saw themselves fall 6-0, despite having chances to seize several games.
In the second doubles match, the Orange faced an even more challenging task, with Viktoriya Kanapatskaya and Shiori Ito against the nation’s No. 4 doubles tandem of Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig. Despite the first game being pushed to deuce, UNC continued to cruise, topping SU 6-1 in a match where Syracuse continued its season-long struggles with net play.
After the doubles matches were complete, the Tar Heels saw themselves up 2-0, one point coming from doubles and one point from Fonte’s forfeit. For the Orange, the hole was just too deep to climb out of.
Uncharacteristically, both Kanapatskaya and Polina Kozyreva never found their footing. Against No. 15 Brantmeier, Kanapatskaya won the first game of the match but then conceded the next 12, losing in straight sets 6-1, 6-0. Similarly, Kozyreva, who had only lost twice entering Sunday, struggled from the get-go and went on to fall 6-2, 6-2 to No. 25 Anika Yarlagadda.
Erman, Syracuse’s top singles player and 95th in the country, was tasked with Crawley, the nation’s top singles player.
At the start of the match, Crawley proved dangerous, flaunting her powerful serve with intelligent plays that stunned Erman. Crawley captured the first three games, but Erman — who had a bitter experience with a win against Miami’s Alexa Noel, who was No. 8 then — showed she wouldn’t go away that easily.
Erman went on to win her service, break Crawley, and then win her favor again to tie the match up at 3-3. Despite winning the following two points and gaining momentum, Crawley responded with an ace and, through her dominant serve, went up 4-3. With service, in a make-or-break game, Erman began inflicting her will and forced Crawley to play defensive, which saw the two knotted at deuce. Erman collected herself and sent a rocket serve to the corner, which Crawley could barely make contact with and return.
Crawley went on to win the first set 6-3 and in the second set, Erman’s frustration grew, which was reflected in her body language. Erman, who has been playing through a lingering back injury for most of the conference play, only took one game from Crawley in the second set and ultimately fell 6-3, 6-1.
In the fifth singles slot, Ito held her own against Carolina’s No. 68-ranked Reilly Tran. Ito dropped the first game yet won the three in commanding fashion. Tran fought back to win the next three games, which gave her a 4-3 advantage. Ito had her chances to take control of the match, as she lost the next game on deuce and the set ended 6-4 in the Tar Heels’ favor. The second set was similar to the first, as Ito went from down 3-1 to down only one at 5-4, but Tran kept her at arm’s length and pulled out the victory 6-4, 6-4.
In the longest and last outing of the day, Kimoto pulled off her best performance of the season against No. 18 Abbey Forbes. Kimoto, who has been dealing with a flurry of minor injuries throughout the season, went up early 2-0 through a great mix of shots and pace. Yet Forbes responded by winning three out of the next four games to tie it at 4-4. In a very physical match, which saw Kimoto fall and limp on several occasions, Kimoto climbed ahead and won the first set 7-5 due to the creativity of shots. The second set remained just as tight, with the two going back and forth, which saw the two eventually even at 5-5. Forbes stayed resilient, as she was playing to her advantage and sending Kimoto running to the corners to win the second set 7-5.
In a super tie break consisting of fatigue, unforced errors and doubles faults, Kimoto secured her best victory of the season 7-5, 5-7, 10-8.
“I think we showed a lot of character and fought with a refusing-to-lose mentality,” said head coach Younes Limam. “From our end, I was very pleased with how we competed in singles.”
