Maddie Kobelt stared blankly at the wall opposite from her teammates who were still competing. Disappointed and clearly upset, the SU freshman lifted a tissue to her eye.

 

Kobelt had just dropped her No. 2 singles match after winning the first set and holding a 4-1 lead in the third set. That loss left the Orange trailing Binghamton by one in the best-of-seven match format.

 

And the two players left on the court for SU, Alessondra Parra and Emily Harman, were both trailing their Binghamton counterparts.

 

‘It would’ve been easy for us to walk off the court, give up and say, ‘Oh, it wasn’t my day,” Harman said. ‘But that’s not how we work here.’

 

And her teammates proved her right. Both girls were able to defeat their opponents and save the match for SU head coach Luke Jensen and his squad. Harman won the 12th game of her second set with BU’s Lauren Bates and finished her off 7-5 in the final set. In doing so, she defeated an opponent who had taken her down in straight sets a year ago.

 

Parra edged the Bearcats’ Anna Edelman in a second-set tiebreaker to force a third set and took the final set 7-6.

 

With the victory, Syracuse extended its home winning streak to 14. And Parra credited the clutch victories to the experience of both herself and Harman.

 

‘This is not new for us, even though it’s a challenge,’ Parra said. ‘We know to relax in tight matches like this and just let our best come out of us without forcing anything.’

 

While both Bearcat opponents looked rattled late in their respective matches, Jensen’s pair was cool, calm and collected. It’s a quality most of Syracuse’s players actively display on the courts. Jensen said this attitude is one of the signature traits of his team.

 

‘This team has a bulletproof mentality when it faces pressure,’ Jensen said.

 

This mental fortitude roots from extra hours in the weight room and conditioning. Every member of the Orange is required to run five miles in under 40 minutes each fall, Parra said. SU players are ready for these three-set matches, whereas some opponents clearly feel the strain of playing point after point.

Harman prides herself on the team’s elite level of conditioning.

 

‘This team is one of the fittest in the country,’ Harman said. ‘I’m very confident in saying that. … I’d like to see another team do what we did today.’

 

Though coming into the season in shape is important, the work the Orange has done in practice is just as valuable. One of Jensen’s coaching philosophies is encouraging competition in practice. Players regularly compete in matches against their teammates.

 

Jensen tells the players to think of these matches as real ones against other teams. He tells them to get into a competitive mindset. And he tells them to play like ‘everything is on the line,’ Parra said.

 

And with everything on the line Friday afternoon, Parra and Harman came through for their team.

 

‘We work to win,’ Harman said. ‘End of story.’

 

sebail01@syr.edu

Published on February 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1