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In the midst of Viktoriya Kanapatskaya’s match point to complete the miraculous comeback, the lights went out. The internet went out, too, resulting in the live scoreboard on the big television going black. After a near 90-minute delay, play resumed, and Kanapatskaya was on the verge of bouncing back after one of her worst set performances of the season.

She lost her first set 6-2 but won the second 6-1 after a stretch of backhanded returns. Kanapatskaya was now in a 5-4 match point situation. After a few shots returned from both sides, Kanapatskaya hit a powerful shot, clinching her last set and the match to put Syracuse ahead 3-0 and improving her singles record to 8-3.

Coming off three straight losses, Syracuse dominated the Clemson Tigers 4-0 on Sunday to earn its first Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season.

During doubles play, Shiori Ito and Sofya Treshcheva went down early in their match. They trailed 4-2 and were unable to handle Clemson’s hard-hitting duo of Cristina Mayorova and Daniella Medvedeva and eventually lost 6-3. But in the next doubles match, Kanapatskaya and Ines Fonte beat the Tiger duo of Lana Sipek and Eleni Louka to win 6-2, improving their record to 7-2 as a pair.

With the doubles play tied at 1-1, SU’s Polina Kozyreva and Miyuka Kimoto were in a continuous back and forth battle with Clemson’s Samantha Buyckx and Ali DeSpain.

Kozyreva and Kimoto split the first few games and led 5-4. But the Tigers’ duo came back and won the next two games, putting SU down 6-5. Kozyreva started the 12th game of the set by running towards the net with a forehand volley to grab the first point, as the duo cruised to a win to force the match into a tiebreaker.

Then, Kozyreva ended the match the same way she started it when Syracuse was trailing 6-5 — with a forehand volley to win the tiebreaker 7-6 (6-3), improving their doubles play record to 5-2. SU won doubles play 2-1 and earned the doubles point to lead 1-0.

“It was amazing. That was a tough doubles match, and that gave us a lot of momentum going into the singles play,” head coach Younes Limam said.

For the first time in exactly a month, Fonte cruised her way to a win in her singles match 6-4 and 6-0. Fonte had the ability to play to her strengths within herself without rushing it.

“I know she wanted to win badly. She’s been working her way through a lot of adversity, and she did a great job,” Limam said.

Prior to the power outage, Kimoto was in a tough matchup with Louka, where she lost a tight second set 7-6. But afterward, Kimoto cruised to a consistent 6-2 set win.

“I’m super proud of how she reacted with a lot of pressure on her. She stayed calm and did what she needed to do,” Limam said.

Treshcheva found herself down 1-0 after a 6-3 loss in the first set and came back to win her second set 7-5. Ito also earned a singles point, winning her first set 6-2, but then lost her second set 6-3.

Kozyreva fell early, losing 6-4 in the first set against Clemson’s Jenna Thompson’s hard-hitting play. But Kozyreva came back to win her second set 6-2. The final set was tied 3-3 before going unfinished.

The Orange next face North Carolina and Duke in two away matches on March 18 and March 20, respectively.

Published on March 6, 2022 at 9:04 pm

Contact Irie: irharris@syr.edu