Alessondra Parra knew that Cornell was going to do everything in its power to defeat Syracuse, but she didn’t expect the competition to begin in warmups.

Parra’s opponent Sinziana Chis wanted to alter the routine warmups interrupt Parra’s usual habits. It was an attempt to get under SU’s skin by hitting shots with topspin prior to the match.

‘They did things that they normally wouldn’t have done,’ Parra said. ‘They picked an opposite side that they wouldn’t have picked and they asked us to change up our warm-up because they wanted to hit more ‘groundies,’ which no one does.’

But Parra and her teammates stuck to their normal preparation. The Orange stuck to its game plan to overcome four three-set matches to defeat the Big Red 5-2 at the Drumlins Tennis Center on Thursday. The victory was the 20th consecutive at home for SU (10-2, 4-0 Big East).

Cornell’s antics were sly, but Syracuse head coach Luke Jensen explained that the Orange was able to stay headstrong and prevailed using its standard methods. The Orange didn’t need creative tactics or unusual strategies to outlast the Big Red.

‘They kind of tricked themselves and threw themselves off,’ Jensen said. ‘If you’re worried about how the other person is warming up, it doesn’t matter, we’re ready, game on.’

SU played in one of its closest matches of the season. The Orange dropped the doubles point, but maintained it focus heading into the singles portion of play.

Emily Harman and Maddie Kobelt each won their matchups in straight sets (7-5, 6-4) at the No. 1 and 2 positions, respectively. The bottom of the lineup, however, got pushed to the brink. Parra, Christina Tan and Simone Kalhorn each played to three-set tiebreakers that decided the match.

At the No. 3 singles position, Parra dropped her first set 2-6. Parra knew that changes had to be made to shift the momentum in her favor.

Parra explained that in the first set, she was playing into her opponent’s strength. Parra was trying to overpower her opponent, which led to more unforced errors. She changed her focus to a more finesse style in the second and third set, and it paid dividends. Parra won the second set 6-3 before winning the third set in a tiebreak, 7-5.

‘She liked stepping on the ball and hitting it flat,’ Parra said. ‘If I hit it with spin and made her work more she made more errors. It took a lot of tenacity to hang in there in the second set and I knew if I hung in and made her play that I could pull it out.’

Kalhorn was able to rally from down 5-2 to push the game to match point. After struggling to hold serve in the third set, Kalhorn made her move to the net and won four straight sets to force match point. However, Kalhorn was unable to hold on and lost to Ruxandra Dumirescu 6-0, 2-6, 6-7 (5-7).

Kalhorn explained that down the stretch she was playing the style that she wanted, but she was unable to execute the shots when it mattered.

‘I had chances that I didn’t make, and I missed them at crucial times,’ Kalhorn said. ‘In the third set I was down so I had to dig deep and make sure I made every single shot and I had to play bigger to put more pressure on her.’

But Tan and Aleah Marrow’s three-set victories ensured the team win. The Orange was on the verge of losing its match to Cornell, but down the stretch Syracuse succeeded in the face of adversity.

‘They wanted to throw us off,’ Parra said. ‘The point of it all was they wanted to come in here with everything. Everyone did such a good job keeping their cool and confidence and battling it out.’

adtredin@syr.edu

Published on March 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm