The score was tied going into the last set of Chelsea Jones’s match against Pittsburgh’s Carlie Smith. Jones was the last member of the Syracuse tennis team still playing on the court and had the chance to decide the fate of her team on Sunday.

For Syracuse, the match could have changed the direction of the rest of its season. SU had a chance to end a six-game losing streak, playing its first game at home, the Drumlins Country Club, in more than a month. The Orange was undefeated at Drumlins going into the match.

Jones’ match lasted more than three hours and ended with Smith winning the last set, 6-4, giving the Panthers a 4-3 win over the Orange. It was SU’s seventh straight loss.

Jones was instantly brought to tears when Smith scored the winning point of the set and match.

‘This is a defining moment for this team. Chelsea Jones had a massive match on the line,’ SU head coach Luke Jensen said. ‘And we come up one point short.’

Syracuse’s (6-11, 4-4) day started off on a poor note, when Pittsburgh (6-6, 3-1) won the doubles point. Playing at the No. 2 position, Jones and sophomore Ashley Spicer were the only duo to win their doubles match. The pair defeated Pittsburgh’s Sabrina Visram and Christie D’Achille, 8-5.

Syracuse has not won the doubles point of a match since it defeated Connecticut Feb. 17. Jensen has attributed the loss of momentum in many matches to losing that first point.

Spicer, Vasilyeva and freshman Jacquelynn Tan all won their singles matches for Syracuse.

The one-point defeat was some measure of improvement. The Orange lost its past three matches by four or more points.

‘It was very sad to have our first loss at home,’ Vasilyeva said. ‘Chelsea played very well; we all did. This week we just have to work on our serves, our base shots, but most of all our self-confidence.’

Spicer said the team was confident because of its previously undefeated record at home. At the beginning of the season, the Orange defeated Cincinnati, 6-1, and swept Georgetown. However, it has not had a Big East conference win since Feb. 17.

Jensen has still not found a solution to end his team’s five-week long losing streak. He has preached that the lack of execution during the matches has led to many of the close losses.

‘The team is beginning to understand the emotional price one has to pay on the practice court and during a match in order to do well and to walk away with a loss,’ Jensen said. ‘When a player wins one point, they started cheering and screaming, and that we celebrate our wins and be positive, that will help us gain momentum toward a win. The momentum is not where I want it to be, but it’s getting there.’

Trying to put into practice what her coach preached, Spicer was leading the team in the cheering battle during Jones and Smith’s final set that decided the outcome of the team match.

Spicer also agreed with Jensen that the team’s losing streak is attributed to not following through on key plays.

‘It really has been a lack of execution,’ Spicer said. ‘We are fit, we are talented, so that’s not the problem. We play great in practice, and we train hard but we are having a problem translating that into our match play, for when it really matters.’

Jones and her teammates couldn’t come up with those crucial points on Sunday.

‘Anyone could have decided the fate of this match,’ Spicer said. ‘Jones just happened to be the last one out on the court. It was a tough loss on all of us, and everyone had the opportunity to improve in some aspect during today’s match. So this is a loss we all take responsibility for.’

mkgalant@syr.edu

Published on March 24, 2008 at 12:00 pm