After 5 straight losses, Syracuse beats Navy in home opener

Syracuse finally had a match tilted in its favor. After suffering five losses to open the season, all of them on the road, the Orange returned home and managed to pull out its first win of the season.

Four of Syracuse’s five previous opponents were ranked, including now-No. 4 Southern California. Against Navy on Sunday, the Orange took advantage of playing arguably its easiest opponent so far.

“We’ve got to start winning some of those close matches,” SU head coach Luke Jensen said. “We’ve lost them so far early in the season. This is a good change of pace.”

The Orange jumped out to a quick start by winning the doubles point to start the match. Syracuse (1-5, 0-1 Big East) swept the Midshipmen (2-3) in all three of its doubles matches to pick up the early lead. It was the first time the Orange won the doubles point all season. From there, Syracuse cruised in singles play to pick up the 6-1 win at Drumlins.

Maddie Kobelt and Aleah Marrow won their match quickly 8-2.  They had only a few minutes off before they had to be back on the court for singles play.

Marrow struggled a bit early on against Noelle Kaufmann, but battled to a 6-4 win in the first set. From there the junior raced to the win, posting a 6-0 second set.

“I felt a little bit more comfortable,” said Marrow of her second set. “I went for my shots a little bit more and stayed focused for every point.”

Kobelt, who was playing No. 1 singles, lost the first set 4-6. She bounced back to win the second 6-3, and then won the tie-breaker 10-6 against Emani Decquir.

“In the second set I cleaned up my errors,” Kobelt said. “I really dug down and tried to work the point more and put myself on the offensive.”

Sophomore Breanna Bachini, who’s had injuries plague her time at SU, took advantage of her opportunity Sunday.

Bachini was the first to complete her singles match, beating Navy’s Sam Droop 6-1, 6-0.

“She’s always played dinged up,” Jensen said. “She’s sometimes had to serve underhand. At one time her leg was all messed up. So she’s now finally playing injury-free. She’s a tremendous competitor. A great athlete.”

Syracuse’s only loss on the day came from freshman Sophia Dzulynsky. She won the first set 6-2 against Logan Antill, but lost the second 2-6, and the third 1-6.

Jensen said he was happy with the turnout for his team’s first home match of the season, even with the early 9 a.m. start time.

“To see the crowd the way it is, it’s starting to become an atmosphere that we’re really proud of,” Jensen said. “Once we establish that, we can kind of build off of it.”

Though Syracuse won its first match of the season, Marrow said the Orange still has a long way to go before it’s where it can win consistently. Syracuse has the chance to continue to improve at home with its next three matches at Drumlins.

“It feels good (to get a win),” Marrow said. “But it’s not a relief. We still have a long ways to go. We need to improve. We got the win but we still need to do better.”