Boston College was three points away from a win, and Yufei Long had Syracuse’s Guzal Yusupova on the ropes. But then momentum bounced the Orange’s way. Long set up at the midline to return a shot when a ball fell out of her shorts. She urgently swatted it aside, but Yusupova drilled a return into the back corner at the same time. Long’s racket never had a shot of reaching the ball. 

That gave Yusupova a 40-15 lead in the third set’s eighth game. After starting the final set down 5-1, Yusupova recovered, eventually winning her match  6-7, 7-5, 7-5, and clinching the 4-3 team-match victory over Boston College (7-2, 0-2). Just like last week against St. John’s — when the Orange were on the verge of defeat — Syracuse (6-0, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) came back.

“Something that this team does extremely well is they never panic and they have a lot of grit,” head coach Younes Limam said. “We had four matches that went super tight – to a third set – and I couldn’t be prouder of how we responded in those stressful situations.”

Before all the pressure rested on Yusupova’s shoulders, Sonya Treshcheva was involved in a potential game-deciding match too. Instead of securing the victory for the Orange, the sophomore faltered in three sets. After pushing the final set to a tiebreaker, Treshcheva jumped out to an early 5-3 lead in the seven-point breaker. 

But then BC’s Laura Lopez started a long rally filled with deep slices. Eventually, Treshcheva switched her grip to try a backhand slice drop shot. Instead of narrowly hitting the ball over the net, though, Treshcheva missed. That was the turn Lopez needed to win the match for Boston College and tie the team score 3-3.

“When I was down 5-1 and I saw that my teammates were coming to my court I was like, ‘OK I have to win right now,’” said Yusupova.

Eventually, after nearly four hours of tennis, Yusupova did. She stayed close to the baseline and dictated shots from there. After pounding returns to Long’s backhand, Yusupova realized that Long’s weaker shot was actually her forehand and changed her attack — sending booming shots deep to the ad court. This slight tweak forced Long to run sideline to sideline for almost every point.

“Everyone’s fighting all the time like we’ve never had an off day from someone,” Miranda Ramirez, who stayed undefeated in singles with a 7-5, 7-5 victory, said. “We’ve all taken care of our courts every single time.”

Last week, Treshcheva was the hero, sealing the win against St. John’s 4-3. But while Syracuse has survived with late points in the last couple of matches, it has also relied on a freshmen backbone.

Kim Hansen and Zeynep Erman both won on Saturday too, staying perfect in singles play and setting Yusupova up with a chance to clinch for the Orange. After a turbulent second set filled with long sighs, smacks of the racket against the tarp and frustrated glances towards assistant coach Jennifer Meredith on the sideline, Hansen eventually defeated Elene Tsokilauri (7-6, 2-6, 6-0). On match point, Hansen iced the win with an ace down the midline to quiet the often vocal Tsokilauri.

When the match tightened up, both sides cheered constantly for minutes. Back and forth went the shots, and back and forth went the cheers. When Treshcheva struggled, most of the team went to root on Treshcheva. After her tough loss, Polina Kozyreva and Sofya Golubovskaya consoled the sophomore with a towel draped over her head.

Then, the Russian trio went to root on Yusupova in a seemingly hopeless attempt. As Yusupova started winning, though, the decibels ticked up inside Drumlins Country Club. The Orange stayed perfect. And their top singles player remained reticent about her own mindset.

“It’s a secret actually,” said Yusupova.

Published on February 15, 2020 at 7:20 pm

Contact Thomas: tgshults@syr.edu | @ThomasShults_