The ball rocketed down the right sideline and skipped past the lunging racquet of the Albany player.

Freshman Nicole Mitchell low-fived senior Amanda Rodgers. Rodgers muttered, “Come on.”

They had covered the court’s weak spots well when the other was drawn out of position until Mitchell finished the point with a forehand winner.

The pair, however, would go on to lose, 6-4, in Syracuse’s only lost individual match in a 7-0 rout of Albany. This represents Syracuse doubles this season; flashes of strength, but subtle mistakes and miscommunications resulting from SU’s pairings’ unfamiliarity with each other.

Syracuse (5-3, 0-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) — which achieved its highest Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranking in the program’s history this week at No. 34 — enters this weekend 4-4 in the doubles portions of its matches this season after a 1-3 start.

The doubles point could prove to be crucial this weekend when the Orange faces No. 26 Notre Dame (6-3, 2-0) on the road Friday and Pittsburgh (2-5, 0-2) on Sunday at 11 a.m. at Drumlins Tennis Center — two opponents who are 11-5 combined on the doubles court this year.

“The doubles point is huge,” said Rodgers, a contributing writer to The Daily Orange. “It’s one of the most crucial things because it’s at the beginning of the match and it’s worth one extra point. You’re up 1-0 against your opponents before you even play singles.”

Syracuse will go up against Notre Dame’s tandem of Quinn Gleason and Monica Robinson, who were the 14th-ranked doubles team in the nation up until this past weekend, when they lost to Katherine Castro and Lolade Ogungbesan of Pitt, SU’s other opponent this weekend.

Each of those pairings are front-level firepower SU must overcome in hopes of taking the match, securing momentum and getting its first win in ACC play.

Winning that doubles point hinges on head coach Younes Limam’s discovery of the successful formula for his team. He’s spent the season shuffling around pairs — the only exception being seniors Komal Safdar and Valeria Salazar, formerly ranked in the 50s nationally, who have played each match together.

Rodgers and sophomore Rhiann Newborn played together consistently until two of the last three matches. Other than those two pairings, no doubles set has played together more than two matches.

“The very first time you play with a partner, there are different things you don’t know,” Mitchell said. “You never know who’ll go for the ball. But, I think we do a good job practicing with the partner with the week before the match so it makes it easier.”

Limam tries to smooth the adjustment by pairing big servers, like Rodgers, with players good at volleying, like Newborn, so that the team can play off of its own strengths.

There will still a learning curve as you learn to play with the other person’s game, but it’s not a seismic change, Rodgers said.
Rodgers knows Newborn likes to hit the ball extremely hard and attack. Patience and consistency are crucial, because they allow Rodgers to play conservatively and manage the match.

This contrasts with her strategy with Mitchell where, since Rodgers is a senior and she’s a freshman, she feels like she has to be more aggressive.

Limam did not commit to keeping Safdar and Salazar together, but he has not assigned either of them a different partner all season. This means Limam — if sophomore Olivia Messineo again is unavailable — will mix and match Rodgers, Newborn, Mitchell and senior Breanna Bachini into two sets of two.

“We’re just trying to look for players with good chemistry together and complement one another,” Limam said. “We’re still going to keep taking it one match at a time and just see who we’re playing against and try to come up with the best doubles combination.”

Published on February 26, 2015 at 12:02 am

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