Alessondra Parra has played in many professional qualifying tournaments. But she has never quite played under the circumstances that she will be faced with on Friday.

No one on Syracuse has experienced what the team will be take part in Friday. The Orange will be dealing with a doubleheader.

‘I don’t know what it’s going to be like because we’ve never done it before,’ Parra said. ‘This is the first time that we are going to play a back-to-back match, but I’m up for the challenge.’

Syracuse (2-1) will look to take one opponent at a time Friday when it plays host to Binghamton (0-0) at 3 p.m. and Colgate (0-0) at 7 p.m. The grueling circumstances are something that was out of the players’ control, but the team is prepared to face the unique test.

Head coach Luke Jensen was not concerned with implicating more conditioning into practice this week. Instead he wanted to focus on fixing some of the areas he thought his team fell short in its first week of competition.

A combination of rest and eating properly are as important as the practices leading up to the match. And after only defeating Binghamton by just one point, 4-3 last season, the team will need to come out firing. Parra said the team will have to show both physical and mental resolve if it hopes to get through both matches victorious.

Even though SU will play two matches in a row, Jensen is confident that fitness will not be an issue.

‘They’ve been working out since the day they came to Syracuse,’ Jensen said. ‘Even the day before classes while they were still in high school they knew the fitness standards. If you’re not prepared now there’s nothing we can do, you can’t get on a treadmill and run laps for what’s about to hit you.’

The Orange starting lineup consists of six players that participate in both singles and doubles play. In total, each player will play four matches apiece by the end of Friday night.

The rare situation SU faces Friday is something that none of the players are used to. Although numerous players on the team have played back-to-back singles matches in professional play, none of the players have played four matches in a day.

But despite the challenge that the SU is about to face, freshman Maddie Kobelt is keeping a positive attitude.

‘I think it will be fun,’ Kobelt said. ‘I always love a challenge. If tennis was easy I probably wouldn’t do it. I love being challenged and it’s a hard sport mentally and physically, so I think it will be fun and a good experience for the whole team.’

Syracuse will perform many of the rituals that have inspired them during previous matches. SU players continuously chatter during matches, willing their teammates through difficult games and chanting spirited messages back and forth.

‘The amount of energy that we put out during our matches is a lot, regardless of what our amount is we’re so loud with our cheering after every single point,’ Parra said. ‘It’s going to be tough maintaining that for two matches in a row. I know we can do it. We have three-hour practices and two-a-days, it’s just going to require a lot of mental concentration and focus over the matches.’

The Orange is able to win matches because of those little things. Players keep movement and never sit down during timeouts, and keeping these superstitious traditions the same is something that will be needed to get through two consecutive matches on Friday.

But Jensen is not going to worry about the second match until it comes to that time. The team will need to conquer each opponent one at a time.

‘They want to beat us and we want to beat them,’ Jensen said. ‘Before we even get to the second match let’s concentrate on that first hurdle. We barely got through them last year, and that’s something I’m going to emphasize over the next couple of days.’

adtredin@syr.edu

Published on February 3, 2011 at 12:00 pm