No. 28 Syracuse loses 5-2 to No. 27 Wake Forest, drops 6th straight match

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No. 28 Syracuse (11-7, 4-7 Atlantic Coast) dropped its sixth straight match to No. 27 Wake Forest (13-9, 4-5 ACC) 2-5. However, the defeat was Syracuse’s best performance during its losing skid. The Orange had lost their previous five by a 1-6 margin.

In the doubles competition, Syracuse’s No. 1 pairing of Zeynep Erman and Ines Fonte were dominated by Wake’s Anna Brylin and Brooke Killingsworth, the 26th-best doubles tandem in the country. Erman and Fonte won the match’s first game, but the Demon Deacons cruised the rest of the way, eventually winning 6-1.

In the No. 3 doubles spot, SU’s Polina Kozyreva and Miyuka Kimoto took on Nevena Carton and Whitley Pate. Again, the Orange struck first, but after Wake tied it up at 1-1, it broke the SU’s serve to take a 2-1 lead and never looked back. The two ultimately lost 2-6. The two victories in doubles clinched the point for WF, which cut the final matchup short.

In singles, No. 95 ranked Erman saw her struggles continue as she faced No. 42 ranked Wooten. In the first game, Wooten broke Erman’s serve before winning 6-0, 6-0. With Erman’s defeat, the Orange found themselves in a 2-0 hole early.

However, Ito gave her best performance of the year. In her matchup with Pate, Ito dominated the scoresheet. The sophomore cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 victory, showing resiliency by returning from early game deficits on several occasions.

Ines Fonte served as another bright spot for Syracuse. She took down Wake’s Maddie Lynch to snap her streak of five consecutive singles losses. Despite falling 1-3 early in the first set, Fonte was able to storm back, winning the next five games to close out the set and finished with a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

In Kozyreva’s matchup with Carton, the Russian native played at her own pace to start with an early 3-1 lead in the first set. But, she proceeded to drop the next three games and her lead disappeared. Kozyreva played the next two points well, going up 30-0 with a chance to break, but Carton crawled back to win 7-5. In the second set, Kozyreva started hot again, winning the first two games. However, Carton responded, flipping momentum by winning the next four games. Kozyreva split the remaining games with Carton before falling 7-5, 6-4.

In the No. 2 singles spot, Kimoto played No. 52 ranked Brylin. In the first set, Kimoto won only one game in a contest that saw her trail 4-0 at one point. Brylin won 6-1. In the second set, Kimoto flipped the script to start strong, breaking Brylin’s serve to win the first game. Her momentum carried over to the second and Kimoto took a 2-0 lead. Brylin responded with a two-game run of her own to tie the set at 2-2, but Kimoto, rallied to win the next four games and win the second set, 6-2. In the third and deciding set, Brylin got out to a 2-0 lead and Kimoto couldn’t catch up. Brylin ended up winning the contest, 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.

In the final and longest match of the day, Viktoriya Kanapatskaya saw herself in a duel with Killingsworth. Like many of her teammates before her, Kanapatskaya dropped the first two games. The former All-American responded with a run of her own to take a 4-2 advantage and ended up winning the opening set 6-3. Killingsworth responded right out of the gate in the second and cruised to a 6-0 win. The third set was the closest as the two split the first six games evenly. Even though the Demon Deacons had already clinched victory as a team, the match continued. Kanaptaskaya was able to break Killingsworth’s service to go up 5-3 and even had a chance to close out the match on her serve, but Killingsworth wouldn’t go away. In another back-and-forth contest, Killingsworth won, 3-6, 6-0, 7-5.

The Orange will continue their road trip on Friday, April 14th, in South Bend, when they take on Notre Dame.