Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

One and done. That’s how Syracuse’s season ended on Thursday night in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. Just one month ago, the Orange were coming off their biggest win in recent memory, defeating then-No. 8 North Carolina State 4-3. SU followed up the win with seven straight losses and although it swept Louisville in its regular season finale over a week ago it couldn’t carry its momentum into the postseason.

No. 10 seeded Syracuse (10-11, 4-9 ACC) fell to No. 7 seeded Notre Dame (17-8, 7-6 ACC) 4-1 in the second round of the ACC Tournament. The Orange had 10 days rest after their win over Louisville, but the time off didn’t matter against the Fighting Irish. SU managed to get off to strong starts in most of its matches but couldn’t close down the stretch.

Miyuka Kimoto’s singles match served as a microcosm of the day. Kimoto, the No. 48 singles player in the country, went toe to toe with No. 26 Julia Andreach of Notre Dame. The two went back and forth which led to a first set tiebreak. Kimoto won the tiebreaker 7-2, but after, she only managed to win three games the rest of the night. Kimoto lost the ensuing sets 3-6, 0-6 which started the theme of SU not being able to close matches.

All season long, Syracuse has struggled in doubles matches to the dismay of head coach Younes Limam. Those struggles continued Thursday. Viktoriya Kanapatskaya and Kimoto helped the Orange get off to a promising start, winning their doubles match 6-2 over Andreach and Page Freeman, but SU failed to win another doubles match on the day.

Constance Levivier and Anastasia Sysoeva fell to Carrie Beckman and Akari Matsuno 4-6. The doubles portion of the match came down to Emilie Elde and Shiori Ito of Syracuse against Notre Dame’s Nibi Ghosh and Yashna Yellayi. The match entered a tiebreak, which Ghosh and Yellayi won 6-4 to earn the doubles point for Notre Dame.

In her tournament debut, Elde struggled, losing in straight sets to Bojana Pozder 1-6, 2-6. Ito saw a similar fate. The junior never had any grip on the match, losing 4-6, 3-6 to Matsuno. The lone win of the day for Syracuse came via graduate student Polina Kozyreva. In her final match of her collegiate career, Kozyreva started hot, winning the first set 6-1. After losing the second set, Kozyreva won the third 6-4.

Both Sysoeva and Kanapatskaya won the first set before falling in the second. By the time the third set kicked off, the match was already decided, so those two matchups went unfinished.

Throughout this season, Syracuse beat the teams it was supposed to, but when it faced tougher competition in the ACC, it faltered. The win over NC State gave the Orange some hope, but they ended the season losing seven of their last eight contests.

Published on April 18, 2024 at 11:07 pm