Amanda Rodgers generally adheres to a specific ritual before serving to her opponents.

“I usually bounce the ball three to five times,” Rodgers said. “Usually like five times on the first serve, three times on the second serve.”

It’s something that she has done since before she joined Syracuse, and the consistency of it helps to calm her down during matches.

Rodgers’ serve is one of the best aspects of her game. It’s contributed to her successful singles play, consisting of a 3-2 record, and to the impressive start to the season for Syracuse (5-1). The Orange will hope to see more of her strong serve and use it to the team’s advantage when it travels to play against Boston College (4-3) on Saturday at 3 p.m.

“I think that it helps for singles and doubles because it kind of puts you at ease,” said Rodgers, a contributing writer for The Daily Orange. “You don’t have to constantly defend yourself. You can set yourself up for a good serve and then hit a nice ground stroke. You don’t have to be rushing around the court.”

Part of what makes Rodgers’ service game so strong is that she keeps it varied.

SU head coach Younes Limam said that her left-handedness contributes to her vast array of serves and said that she can hit flat serves, wide serves and serves with spin.

“She mixes up her serve really well, so I think it helps a lot,” said sophomore Rhiann Newborn, who benefits from Rodgers’ serve when they play doubles together.

Besides the fact that she’s a lefty, her knowledge of her own service game also allows her to mix up her serves so well. When she knows what type of serve she wants to use, she alters her point of contact accordingly, hitting the ball at the 11 o’clock position for a flat serve and the 1 o’clock position for a kick serve.

She added that serving with spin makes it easier to get the ball in the box.

“And I think that it’s also beneficial because even if the opponent gets the ball, there’s so much spin on it that they can’t hit an aggressive shot back,” Rodgers said.

Her preferred first serve is a slice that hits close to the T, or, when she serves on the advantage side, a slice that goes out wide. She prefers wide serves on the second serve as well.

Rodgers does a good job of placing her serves, and Newborn notices when they play together.

“She’s very accurate,” Newborn said, “which is very nice.”

The quality of Rodgers’ serve is a result of a bunch of different factors, and Limam is glad to have it on his side.

“Serving is one of her strengths,” Limam said, “and she’s using her serve smarter and she’s using it to her advantage.”

Published on February 12, 2015 at 1:14 am

Contact Kevin: kjpacell@syr.edu