Tennis

Miranda Ramirez wins 10th straight, even as Syracuse loses to No. 6 Georgia Tech

Courtesy of SU Athletics

Miranda Ramirez won her tenth straight singles match, going to 11-1 on the season.

Syracuse’s Miranda Ramirez sent her opponent, Georgia Tech’s Rasheeda McAdoo, back and forth along the baseline. Each point seemed to end with a Ramirez winner that McAdoo couldn’t quite reach. McAdoo consistently blazed the same trail down the endline as she inevitably failed to catch up to a cross court shot from Ramirez.

“I could tell that when she was on the run, she had a tendency to either make more errors or give me more opportunities,” Ramirez said. “So, I just tried to take advantage of that.”

Ramirez and her strong baseline play resulted in her tenth straight singles win, 6-4, 6-4, and brought her to 11-1 on the season. But the Ramirez win was not enough for Syracuse (5-8, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) on Sunday to overcome No. 6 Georgia Tech (17-2, 7-0), though, as the Yellow Jackets won, 4-3.

The freshman Ramirez faced a tough challenge in her debut at SU’s top singles spot against Georgia Tech’s highest ranked player, No. 46 McAdoo. Their styles clashed.

McAdoo played with power. The senior’s serves sizzled, and her hits from any point on the court were strong. Ramirez played with finesse. She seemed content to wait along her baseline and return any slams that McAdoo offered. In focusing on placement rather than power, Ramirez succeeded in outlasting McAdoo.



Ramirez went through the whole match without changing the blank expression on her face. On the other side, McAdoo jawed at the ref on multiple occasions. McAdoo consistently seemed frustrated as she looked at the ceiling or stared at her feet when she couldn’t reach a deep baseline shot following long rallies. Ramirez stayed stoic as ever, regardless of the outcome of an individual point.

“It’s more about the process than about the end result,” Ramirez said. “As long as I keep focusing on what I’m doing the same in the moment, then the result will come after.”

Ramirez lost a tight doubles match with her partner, Gabriela Knutson. The pair lost to Georgia Tech’s No. 113 Paige Hourigan and Kenya Jones, 7-6 (7-3). Both Knutson and Ramirez felt they played well in doubles, and agreed that it didn’t hold them back heading into singles, where they both won.

“(Ramirez) has the right attitude,” head coach Younes Limam said. “She works extremely hard at every single practice. Hopefully she will keep at it and keep improving, because that’s our main goal is to keep getting better every day.”

Ramirez will just continue to do what has worked ten times in a row: Trust her process and calmly hit baseline winners.





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