Last weekend presented Maddie Kobelt with the first humbling experience of her freshman season. After winning eight consecutive matches at the No. 2 and 3 singles position for the Syracuse tennis team, the freshman lost two singles matches in a row for the first time ever in her short collegiate career.

During her matches on the road against No. 9 Southern California and No. 62 San Diego State last weekend, Kobelt said she struggled to adjust quickly enough to compete with more challenging opponents than she has faced most of this season. She allowed her opponents back into crucial points.

‘You win some and you lose some,’ Kobelt said. ‘It’s just learning from them and moving on. We all had our chances to think about our past matches and what to improve upon, so we’re just going to bring our improved selves to the match tomorrow.’

Syracuse also experienced a first in a long time last weekend — it lost two consecutive matches for the first time since the Big East tournament in 2009. The Orange (10-4, 4-0 Big East) will look to avoid dropping three in a row against Villanova on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. inside Drumlins Tennis Center. SU has dropped just three points in four Big East matches this season. It also has a 20-game winning streak at home.

Head coach Luke Jensen feels there is nothing unsettling about losing two straight. Jensen said he is more confident in his players than he has been all season. That comes from watching his team push the ninth-ranked Trojans to a 4-3 result. Jensen saw the best play of the season from all of his players. And he also said it’s the best tennis many of the Orange have played in their lifetimes.

Against USC, Kobelt and junior Emily Harman took an 8-5 victory over the nation’s seventh-best doubles pairing, Maria Sanchez and Kaitlyn Christian. Senior Simone Kalhorn and freshman Aleah Marrow each defeated their opponents in straight sets at the No. 5 and 6 singles positions, respectively.

Jensen saw a different squad from earlier in the season. And he’s confident it will carry over to the match against the Wildcats.

‘We’re not going to be pushing it around anymore,’ Jensen said. ‘We need to play bigger, and you can hear the sound of what they’re doing now. The lesson learned there is you have to play much more powerful than we did in the past.’

Despite losing to the Aztecs 1-6 a day later, the Orange played three three-set matches and hung with an opponent with three wins against nationally ranked competition this season. Harman and Kobelt won their 11th match as the No. 1 doubles pairing against another nationally ranked duo.

‘We’re playing against blue-chip players who have won tournaments in juniors before college,’ Jensen said. ‘They have national championship trophies and gold balls and blue chips that our players weren’t good enough to get into the tournament. Now we’re not only competing with them, but we’re beating them.’

With four matches over the next five days, the heightened level of play is something Jensen has hoped to see all season. The battles in California provided SU with a benchmark to improve upon, and it showed Jensen what he feels his team is truly capable of accomplishing.

The end result wasn’t what the Orange or Jensen hoped for, but the team’s performance was a far cry from what it exhibited early in the season.

For senior Christina Tan, the strong performances against superior opponents mean more than what appears in the win or loss columns.

‘We’re proud of our record, but we don’t dwell on how many losses we have in a row,’ Tan said. ‘We’re really focused on if we go out there and compete, fight hard and don’t leave anything behind.’

The freshman Kobelt dropped her fourth match of the season and second in 10 matches, but she said the experience garnered from playing against the Trojans and Aztecs could be paramount to success down the stretch. And that starts against Villanova on Wednesday.

‘We have to bring back our Orange energy to be able to play our way and our game in our home building,’ Kobelt said. ‘We’re prepared to wreak havoc.’

adtredin@syr.edu

 

Published on March 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm