Tennis : Despite injuries, rust Syracuse staying positive for final 2 matches

The math is simple. Sixty-four teams make the NCAA tournament. Syracuse is currently ranked No. 57.

With potentially backbreaking away matches at Georgetown and Seton Hall this weekend, Syracuse’s postseason is in the balance. Yet the team remains unfazed.

‘Right now, we’re just treating it as another match, which we always treat as a tournament match anyway,’ senior Emily Harman said. ‘I think the team’s ready to roll.’

The Orange (12-4, 5-1 Big East) is set to travel with a lean squad of six players, as Alessondra Parra (toe) and Aleah Marrow (concussion) were not cleared to compete. SU will also be playing its first match outside since losing to South Florida on Jan. 14. But with two conference matches remaining against the Hoyas on Friday at 1 p.m. and Pirates on Sunday at 3 p.m. heading into the Big East tournament, the team feels ready.

Especially since the injuries are nothing new.

‘This whole season has been about adversity,’ head coach Luke Jensen said. ‘I definitely know from day one we haven’t had everybody on the team at the same time 100 percent healthy. Something has always been injured.’

The six cleared players who will travel to Washington, D.C., Friday are suffering from nagging injuries themselves. And while the grinding nature of the sport makes such lingering knocks far from unusual, the severity of the injuries currently striking the program is an anomaly.

In the past two seasons, none of the Orange’s players have gone down due to injury, Jensen said. Unlike those years, though, this team has depth to make up for the losses.

Every healthy player has started and won singles matches this season, including walk-on Jimena Wu, a player Jensen said could compete at No. 1 singles. At Tuesday’s practice she played a set with SU’s No. 1, Emily Harman.

Wu, a natural baseliner whose three singles starts this season have come at No. 6 singles, provides a stark contrast to Harman’s all-action serve and volley game. At one point, a deep forehand from Wu produced a rare net error from the closing Harman.

Though the wind at Skytop Tennis Complex played with the team’s shots, the whole team struck the ball cleanly, moving their teammates around the court as they prepared for the crucial upcoming weekend.

‘I just like the way they’re striking the ball, I like the way they’re moving and I just like their confidence right now,’ Jensen said. ‘They should be confident. They’ve earned a really nice season so far, so they’re ready to get after it again.’

The absences of Parra and Marrow will test the team. All six traveling players will be forced to play both singles and doubles while shaking off three weeks’ worth of rust.

Jensen expects his players to improve throughout the weekend as they get re-acclimated to competing against someone other than their teammates.

The players aren’t concerned.

‘I think we’re all good enough tennis players now that taking two weeks off and not playing a match isn’t going to be too effective,’ freshman Komal Safdar said. ‘… I really don’t think it makes a big difference in the end. That first match we’ll be ready, we’re prepared.’

Jensen said he hopes his injured players will be cleared before next week’s Big East tournament. Yet in his mind, the tournament starts Friday at 1 p.m. against Georgetown.

With national and Big East championships as the team’s stated goals, the team must work through its mini-injury crisis and rest before next Friday’s Big East quarterfinals.

Anything short of two wins and a semifinal appearance in the Big East will likely bring SU’s season to a close.

Sophomore Maddie Kobelt, like the rest of her teammates, isn’t letting the magnitude of the occasion bother her.

‘The whole season and everything has been ‘on the line’ for every sport, for every team, so, you know, I think if we just go in, you know keep our heads strong and keep the focus on really what we’re trying to do out there, then we’ll be fine.’

jmklinge@syr.edu