After the end of her first set, Valeria Salazar lay on the bench with her injured legs propped up while eating an apple.

She had just won the set, but not without struggling first.

Fighting through injury, Salazar rallied from being down 4-1 in the first set to win her match by a score of 7-6 (7-4), 6-2. She, along with her No. 34 Syracuse (6-4, 1-3 Atlantic Coast) team, was gritty in its 5-2 victory against Pittsburgh (2-7, 0-4) on Sunday afternoon at Drumlins Tennis Center.

Her match came after an 8-2 doubles win with partner senior Komal Safdar. It was one of the two doubles victories that earned the Orange the doubles point to start the match.

It was a slow start in singles for Salazar, who quickly fell behind 3-0 as she played through pain. During the following side change, she sat visibly upset on the bench with her face buried in her towel.

“I’ve never retired before and I didn’t want this to be the first time,” Salazar said, “so I just kept finding a way to win.”

Her play didn’t improve dramatically from there, and she was behind 4-1 at the next side change. It was at that point that she was visited by a trainer, who told her that she could stop playing if she desired.

Salazar came from behind to tie the score at six, and her improved play didn’t stop there.

In the tiebreaker, she continued to impress with a textbook drop-shot lob sequence, an aggressive shot from the baseline taken before the bounce, and a strong serve that won her the set.

She continued this way in the second set, opening with an overhead winner before proceeding to win 6-2.

“V is going through a lot of adversity right now,” head coach Younes Limam said, “and having her just managing her pain and emotions and everything was huge for us.”

Salazar wasn’t the only SU player to earn a victory like this one on Sunday.

Senior Amanda Rodgers wasn’t fighting through pain, but she seemed to be fighting against herself. Rodgers took the first set before losing the second. Her frustration showed clearly when she angrily hit the ball into the net after a missed shot.

“I was very frustrated, just because we’ve had a long season so far and two days ago I didn’t get the clincher. And that’s always very mental,” Rodgers, a contributing writer for The Daily Orange, said. “And so I was just thinking, ‘OK, just regroup and don’t let this go by you.’”

Despite being down 2-0 early in the third set, she followed up with strong serves that earned her a quick win in her next service game.

From there, Rodgers got back in her groove. She evened up the match by breaking back and then broke again when she was winning 4-3, earning herself the opportunity to serve for the match.

She capitalized, and despite a series of “Come on!” shouts throughout the match, her response after match point was quiet.

It was a well-fought battle across the board for Syracuse, and it earned its first victory in ACC play as a result.

“I just really wanted to win,” Salazar said with a laugh, “and I don’t like to lose.”

Published on March 1, 2015 at 7:23 pm

Contact Kevin: kjpacell@syr.edu