Three rain delays, seven straight road games and not winning any doubles matches amounted to a miserable weekend for the Syracuse tennis team.

Syracuse lost 5-1 to Central Florida on Friday and then suffered its second loss of the weekend to Big East foe South Florida on Sunday. The pair of losses added to the Orange’s six-match losing streak.

After winning its first match of its seven-match road trip on Feb. 17, SU (6-10, 4-3) has fallen to a 2-10 record away from its home court at the Drumlins Country Club.

‘I want the team to be sick of the taste of losing in their mouths,’ Syracuse head coach Luke Jensen said. ‘I need them to get mean and stop being intimidated by their opponents.’

When the Orange faced the Knights (8-7) on Saturday, the match was delayed three different times due to rain during the middle of play. After the final rain delay, sophomore Chelsea Jones singles’ match was canceled because the Knights already had enough points overall to win, and it was no longer safe to play on the outdoor courts.

Jensen switched the doubles teams around for the second time this season against Central Florida. Still, Syracuse did not win a doubles match the entire weekend. Central Florida and South Florida (14-5, 4-2) swept the doubles play against the Orange, respectively.

Jensen and his team spent the week prior to their weekend games in Tampa, Fla., in what Jensen calls ‘Camp Hell,’ an intense week of training. The team had two practices a day, in which the coaching staff stressed five-mile runs, ground strokes, volleys and executing plays.

Jensen continuously states his team is the ‘most physically fit’ in the nation, and he felt it showed during the practice sessions last week. But Jensen admitted the team he saw in practice did not show up to this weekend’s matches.

‘The team has never played as well as they did this week in practice,’ Jensen said. ‘We covered every aspect of the game in practice, and we installed the spirit of competition in them. But once we got to our matches they became intimated by the unknown and failed to execute.’

Christina Tan and Maria Vasilyeva played at the No. 1 doubles spot, but lost, 8-1, against Central Florida and then lost, 8-4, at the No. 3 position against South Florida.

‘I keep changing the doubles partners around because we just are not winning that doubles point in matches, and that’s a pretty important first point,’ Jensen said. ‘I know their records don’t show it right now, but we saw areas of improvement, and that is really important.’

Despite the losing doubles teams, Vasilyeva was the only Syracuse singles player who had a winning weekend. She defeated Central Florida’s Anna Yakimchenkova 7-5, 6-2 and then won again against South Florida’s Liz Cruz 7-6 (7-2), 6-2. Vasilyeva is 11-5 this season and collected her 80th career win this weekend.

‘Maria really knows the ropes of the game and can navigate her way to a win,’ Jensen said. ‘Her demeanor during road matches is something I’d love the rest of the team to develop. When you ask Maria if she is going to win today, her answer is always a confident ‘yes.”

Despite the losing record, Jensen said he wants to remain positive and does not plan on changing anything in the team’s practice regimen because of the level of good play he sees during practice.

Syracuse’s two games in Florida marked the end of its seven straight road games. Jensen did not want to attribute being on the road to losing, but said practicing on different courts, always traveling and not getting to sleep in their own beds affected the team toward the end of the away-game stretch.

‘Not playing to our potential is the cause of our losing,’ Jensen said. ‘I think winning has to do with an approach to the game, a mental outlook, and we don’t have a confident one right now. The team needs to match the confidence I have in them. We need to want to get rid of this taste of losing we’ve had in our mouth for three weeks now.’

mkgalant@syr.edu

Published on March 17, 2008 at 12:00 pm