Miranda Ramirez smashed the ball into the ground. As it bounced up toward the Drumlins Country Club ceiling, Ramirez turned and walked away from the baseline. The point before, she had been serving for the match at deuce when she hit a shot wide, gifting her opponent, Yuna Ito, a break.

The score equalized at 5-5, and volunteer assistant coach Len Lopoo leaned in from beside Ramirez’s court, trying to offer her advice. But Ramirez kept walking. Ito capitalized on the opening, rattling off two more games to force a third set.

No. 30 Syracuse (12-9, 5-7 Atlantic Coast) trailed 3-1 at the time, and a Ramirez win could’ve sparked a comeback. Masha Tritou was locked in a third-set battle on the other side of the spectator area, and on the court beside Ramirez, Gabriela Knutson was fighting to stay in the match against No. 2 Estela Perez-Somarriba while still keeping tabs on Ramirez’s score. But each of them lost, and unable to close out sets and matches, the Orange fell to No. 27 Miami (14-6, 7-5) for their third loss in four matches, 5-2.

“There’s no answer to that,” SU head coach Younes Limam said. “You win more of those close matches, you feel like you’re not going to lose those matches. You lose a few, then you think twice.”

Sofya Golubovskaya was the first to be beaten in singles. Daevenia Achong cruised in the first set, 6-2, but a Golubovskaya inside-out forehand-winner earned the SU sophomore a second break and 4-1 lead.

Golubovskaya didn’t win another game and buried her face in a towel after shaking hands with Achong. Later, while watching Tritou on her neighboring court, she didn’t switch sides as her teammate did, which prompted associate head coach Shelley George to yell, “Sofya, stand up and go to the other side.” Golubovskaya slowly stood up and walked around the net to where Sonya Treshcheva was already standing and took a seat again.

“I don’t think there was a match where we’re like, this team is just better,” Limam said.

Tritou also led early in her match on Sunday, but faltered as well. Serving for the set at 5-4, Tritou said she allowed prior mistakes to reappear. Her opponent “got more into” her head, she said, and the errors followed. After Tritou’s serve broke, she lost the final two games of the set, including three errors and a double fault while down 5-6.

“I just felt like this match was like I was playing against myself,” Tritou said. “… My forehand, (my returns), I wasn’t really feeling it.”

From the start of conference play on Feb. 1, SU’s struggles to finish sets has cost it. Knutson was the culprit against Virginia in the conference-opener more than two months ago. Playing then-No. 32 Meghan Kelley, SU’s No. 1 led 5-2, but then hit a forehand into the net for deuce.

Against Miami, Knutson was also serving for the set at 5-4. Three points to Perez-Somarriba later, including a forehand by the Miami junior causing Knutson to clap in appreciation, Knutson faced a was facing triple-break point. Knutson double-faulted, and the set was all-square at five games.

She felt the stress getting to her, the SU senior said, and both days, she couldn’t bounce back and went on to lose those sets.

“It’s also the pressure of playing such a good opponent who you know is on the same level as you,” Knutson said. “You know you have to do it now, because you’re not going to get another chance.”

Published on April 7, 2019 at 6:25 pm

Contact Arabdho: armajumd@syr.edu | @aromajumder