Votavova Keys Two Upsets As Syracuse Beats Yale

Friday, January 26

Syracuse, N.Y.

5:00 p.m.

Syracuse University

Yale

Olga Votavova won in both singles and doubles in her first dual match with Syracuse

1/26/2007 10:32:10 PM | Tennis

Box Score

Syracuse, N.Y.- The Syracuse women’s tennis team opened the 2007 spring season with a 4-3 home victory against Yale. Syracuse won the doubles point with two close victories, and then came from behind in singles to claim the match as well. Senior Ashley Lipton won the deciding match in three sets.

The Orange lost the first doubles match, but then junior Olga Votavova and sophomore Maria Vasilyeva defeated Kim/Rhee, the eighth-ranked doubles team in the East Region, 9-7. Lipton and senior Carolina Huignard beat the Bulldogs in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (5), to claim the first point of the match for Syracuse.

In singles action, Votavova, who is ranked 28th in the region, recorded her second upset of the day at No. 1, beating 12th-ranked Kim in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4. Syracuse lost the next three matches to go down 3-2 with only two matches still in progress. Lipton and junior Catherine Zawadzki were involved in tightly contested matches. After losing the first set to Sarah Lederhandler in a tiebreaker, Zawadzki came back to win the match, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. Lipton won the first set, 6-4, but relinquished a lead in the second and lost, 6-7. In the third set, Lipton came from behind and needed three match points to win, 6-4, and give the Orange a victory in its first match of the season.

Syracuse hosts #37 Maryland Sunday at 10 a.m. The Terrapins take on the Bulldogs on Saturday at the Drumlins Tennis Center.