After winning her first set, Miranda Ramirez found herself down 5-2 in the second set. Despite Syracuse holding a 3-0 lead to Colorado, the Orange’s remaining singles games were far from decided. 

Gabriela Knutson faced a deficit after losing the tiebreaker in her first set and going down early in the second. Masha Tritou was down 4-0 in the third set. Dina Hegab won her first set but was also down in her second set. But Ramirez was the one to step up.

Ramirez battled from 5-2 and rattled off three-straight games before falling behind at 5-5 to the Buffaloes’ Monica Malinen. After rattling off the next three points, Ramirez took the second, 7-5, and her match, becoming the clinching point of the Syracuse’s (5-4, 0-2 Atlantic Coast) eventual 6-1 victory over Colorado (4-4). The junior pushed her singles record to 6-3 on the season, tied for the highest on SU, and bounced back from her two set loss last Sunday in the ITA Women’s National Team Indoor Championships. 

“We knew she was going to have a tough opponent today, and she played a great set,” SU head coach Younes Limam said. “She was down 5-2 and just battling on that second set and making things even harder for her opponent was extremely good to see.”

The SU junior wasn’t fazed in the first set, winning 6-4, but she was broken in the second set early. Once down 5-2, Ramirez quickly rattled off two-straight games to pull within one of Malinen. The next set, while serving, Ramirez fell behind early 40-15. She responded with a forehand down the line drawing “so good, so good” comments from the sideline. From there, she held on to make it a deuce and pull out the point.

Tied at 5-5 in the set, she fell behind in the 11th game. On back-to-back points her return was hit just to hard, sailing over the baseline out of bounds, making it 15-40. But on the next two Ramirez forced awkward backhand returns by Malinen, both of which hit the net, making it deuce. In a critical point, Ramirez again put Malinen on her backhand for a return that went out of bound again. Up 6-5, she needed just one more game point to clinch the match.

“For me, no matter what situation is going on on the court, as long as you’re physically on the court, you have a chance to win the match, you have a chance to comeback,” Ramirez said.

This time, Ramirez got off to a quick start. With help from a perfectly place drop shot, she quickly went up 30-0. After flipping points, she smashed the ball down the line at 40-30. Malinen didn’t even attempt to play the ball as the match was on the line. The crowd and her teammates cheered as the Orange officially won the match.

The win came at a critical time for Syracuse and Ramirez. SU entered the game on a four-game losing skid and Ramirez lost in straight-sets her last game. Going down early only pushed her to be better, she said.

“I don’t have any room for error,” Ramirez said. “If I lose just a point here and there then the sets over, and I’ll have to start again for the third. So for me it’s tough to find the balance between not taking that as pressure but also using it as more motivation.”

As Knutson and Hegab also managed to pull out come-from-behind victories, Ramirez’s clutch point became an afterthought as the Orange dominated the Buffaloes, 6-1. But for a team that had been on a losing streak, Ramirez’s second set comeback gives SU something to build off.

“I saw what I always see: huge fight,” senior Libi Mesh said of Ramirez. “… And just like she did today, she found a way, she managed and she just didn’t give up.”

Published on February 15, 2019 at 8:02 pm

Contact Eric: estorms@syr.edu