Though the doubles point was already locked up, the focus shifted to Chelsea Jones and Emily Harman.

The Syracuse duo of CC Sardinha and Christina Tan had already defeated its opponents in Saturday’s doubles round against St. John’s, as had Simone Kalhorn and Eleanor Peters. Now it was up to Jones and Harman to take down the Red Storm’s No. 1 pair to seal the sweep.

The crowd saw Jones and Harman go toe-to-toe with Ece Firat and Jenny Yonkus, evading one match point and ultimately outlasting them, 9-8. The resilience they showed in that match embodied the team’s tenacity throughout the entire weekend home stand as the Orange finished 3-0, notching victories over Albany, St. John’s and Rutgers.

‘We eat pressure up because it’s our time to shine,’ Jones said of her team.

Though the scores from this weekend’s matches appeared lopsided, it was a suitable tuneup for the Orange’s opening weekend, with a pressure-packed match serving as a preview for what’s to come.

‘The scores showed blowout matches for sure, but they were tougher than the score indicated,’ Tan said.

Though the late surge by Jones and Harman was close, Harman said that if she and her partner had seized early opportunities, they never would have been in a position to need a comeback.

She cited failure to capitalize on first serves and easy volleys as a reason for their early skid. But neither she nor Jones viewed the deficit as a problem.

‘They’d better watch out when we’re down because we come back really well,’ Jones said. ‘It doesn’t matter what the score of the match is. We’re going to play really well.’

During both singles and doubles, many players dug themselves into early holes but were able to recover and win their respective matches, showing resilience that head coach Luke Jensen feels is telling about the kind of team he has this year.

‘When you look at champions across the board in sports, they play their best when their backs are against the wall,’ Jensen said. ‘When they need a point, when they need a play, they come up with something special.’

That’s not to say that Jensen and his squad prefer to be trailing in matches. They attribute their difficulty in getting off the ground early in matches to early-season jitters, something that only time and experience will fix.

But nonetheless, Jensen believes situations like this can only help his team and may be signs of something special soon to come.

‘Instead of having to build that resilience, build that character,’ Jensen said, ‘we start at a very high level, and it’s only going to evolve into a much stronger unit.’

The Orange has already noticed an improvement from last season, as it swept singles and doubles against Rutgers, which beat SU a year ago.

And after a tight victory in a decisive match, Harman realizes the Orange is picking up right where it left off. Even if it had to dust a few cobwebs off first.

‘Jonesy and I have done this before,’ Harman said. ‘We know to keep fighting regardless of what the score.’

pcgeorge@syr.edu

Published on January 31, 2010 at 12:00 pm