Rough California road trip for Orange

The Syracuse Women’s Tennis team continued its troubles away from home, losing two straight road games to the USC Trojans and the San Diego State Aztecs. The Orange, now 10-4, are just 2-4 away from their home court at Drumlins, where the team is still undefeated.

Both the Trojans (No. 7 in the country) and the Aztecs (No. 62) are worthy opponents and the Orange couldn’t get enough momentum going to defeat either team. Syracuse put up a very good fight against USC, splitting the singles matches 3-3 and winning first doubles, but they couldn’t get the doubles point and lost 4-3. On Wednesday against SDSU, a very competitive and active Aztec team tired out the girls, winning 6-1. All but two of the singles matches were decided in a third set, proving that Syracuse had the talent but simply couldn’t close the deal in San Diego.

Senior Simone Kalhorn proved to be a bright spot for the Orange, being the only singles player to win her match against SDSU as well as winning the prior day against USC. Kalhorn managed to play well in the clutch, winning one of her sets 7-5 on Tuesday and securing her singles point in a close third set on Wednesday.

First doubles pair Maddie Kobelt and Emily Harman continued as a dominating pair, winning 8-5 in Los Angeles and 8-3 in San Diego. They are now 11-2 this season at the first doubles position. Both girls struggled in singles play though, only winning one set between the two of them over the course of both days. Kobelt, the impressive freshman, ended her winning streak of eight matches on that first loss to USC, 6-3, 6-1.  

The Orange looks forward to another home match this Wednesday, March 23 at 3:30 p.m. at the Drumlins Tennis Center. This is a makeup of the Villanova match from Feb. 25 that was cancelled due to inclement weather.