Leading 6-5 in the third set, Sofya Golubovskaya crouched down, ready to return Jennifer Kerr’s serve. The oncoming point would decide whether Golubovskaya would walk off the court as the winner or whether the two would have to play a tiebreak.

Kerr started the point as the aggressor, moving Golubovskaya around the court and forcing her to play defensive shots. The SU sophomore got back into the point with a strong backhand, but Kerr responded by pinning Golubovskaya to the baseline and looking to come to the net herself. Kerr’s approach shot left too much time for Golubovskaya though, and the No. 92 ranked singles player punished her with a game-winning backhand passing shot down the line.

“I just trusted myself and hit it (the backhand),” Golubovskaya said.

Her 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 win pushed Syracuse’s (2-0) lead to 3-1, and the Orange finished off Columbia (0-1) soon after, 5-2, Sunday afternoon at Drumlins Country Club. Hegab clinched the win with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 comeback victory of her own. Sofya Treshcheva added the fifth point later as her match had a delayed start due to a leaking roof. It made just five of the six courts playable, pushing back the last singles match.

Five games before Golubovskaya’s match-winning backhand, Kerr controlled the match, up 5-2 in the third set. Golubovskaya had rocketed shots into the net and committed other unforced errors. After winning the first set 6-2, she lost the second set 3-6.

To end that set, Golubovskaya fired a backhand into the net and slapped her shoe with her racket twice. As she sat down on the bench beside her coach, her face remained down.

“She (Kerr) just started playing more aggressive than she was in the first set,” Golubovskaya said. “And I started doing all the mistakes from the first shot that I wasn’t doing in the first set.”

Early in the third, she had a chance to break and take control of the match again. At 30-40, Golubovskaya’s forehand return sailed wide. At deuce, with Kerr hitting a second serve, Golubovskaya once more squandered the opportunity by hitting her shot too long. Kerr capitalized on the missed chances and eventually went up 4-2, putting pressure on Golubovskaya’s serve.

She was broken again, this time on a double fault, and Kerr went up two breaks and had a chance to serve for the match. Golubovskaya said she knew at that time that she had to change the way she was playing and do something different.

SU assistant coach Shelley George reminded her that it’s OK to play up the middle or to Kerr’s forehand sometimes. Golubovskaya was trying too hard to hit winners, and she said she changed her attitude to stay in the rallies more.

“I just tried to not finish the rally so early, to wait for the right moment,” Golubovskaya said.

It worked, albeit slowly. After breaking back to make it 3-5, Golubovskaya gifted Kerr another chance to finish the game with a double fault at 40-30. SU’s star sophomore put her hands on her knees, tired and frustrated. But a big backhand on the next point caused Kerr to hit it long, and Golubovskaya was just a break away from tying the set.

She started to work the angles on Kerr more, drawing the Columbia sophomore wide and either forcing mistakes or hitting winners into the open court. Still, the game went to deuce, and Golubovskaya benefited from an unforced error by Kerr to stay in the match.

After a relatively comfortable hold for her fourth-straight game, Golubovskaya looked to return with a chance to steal the match. And following three unforced errors by Kerr to force another deuce, Golubovskaya did just that with her backhand winner.

“Sofya is a fighter, especially in the beginning of the season,” Gabriela Knutson said, “it’s important to know that you have someone like that on the team.”

Published on January 20, 2019 at 4:53 pm

Contact Arabdho: armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder