No. 25 Syracuse loses to No. 27 Georgia Tech, drops 2nd straight on the road
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No. 25 Syracuse (11-3, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) lost its second consecutive match on the road to No. 27 Georgia Tech (9-6, 4-4 ACC) 6-1. The Orange won the doubles point emphatically but fell apart in the singles rounds, losing all six matches.
The doubles round started off great for the Orange, who suffered their worst loss of the season to No. 46 Clemson, 6-1, two days prior. Polina Kozyreva and Miyuka Kimoto quickly took care of business for the Orange against Rosie Gracia Gross and Mahak Jain, winning 6-1 after leaping out to a 4-1 lead. It was the duo’s third win in the last four matches. Shiori Ito and Viktoriya Kanapatskaya went on to secure SU’s only point. They followed Kozyreva and Kimoto’s performance with a 6-2 victory.
The final doubles match went unfinished between SU’s Zeynep Erman and Ines Fonte and GT’s Kylie Bilchev and Alejandra Cruz. This matchup, like the others, looked great for the Orange. Syracuse dominated up 4-3 before the match was called off with the doubles point already secured.
Georgia Tech looked completely different in the singles, as the Yellowjackets led on all six courts early. The first match to finish was Erman’s matchup with No. 8 ranked Carol Lee. Although Erman’s last matchup against a top 10 ranked player in the country finished in an upset victory, Lee cruised to a 2-0 (6-1, 6-2) win.
Next, in the number six singles slot, Kate Sharabura took down Fonte — Friday’s lone winner for Syracuse versus Clemson. Sharabura cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win, securing the lead for Georgia Tech and placing it in a position where two more wins would clinch victory. Shortly after, in the number four singles slot, Cruz dominated Kimoto (6-3, 6-0) and 27th-ranked Bilchev defeated Kanapatskaya (6-2, 6-1). With the win secured, GT moved to 0.500 in conference play.
Two matches remained despite GT already clinching victory to move to 0.500 in conference play. Kozyreva put up a valiant fight against No. 99 Jain while Gross dominated Ito 6-3, 6-0.
Kozyreva would lose a tight first set 10-8 but the second set went back and forth. But with Jain leading 4-3, Kozyreva would take an awkward fall and take a timeout to see the trainer. Kozyreva would get up after several minutes holding her right ankle and would continue for a little longer before retiring, taking a (7-6, 3-4 (ret.)) loss.
Syracuse will play at home this Friday to play No. 10 Duke (15-2, 5-1 ACC) and No. 1 North Carolina (20-0, 6-0 ACC).
