Up 5-4 in the second set, Breanna Bachini hit her second serve in, and a 12-shot rally followed.

Her opponent hit the ball into the net, and Bachini hunched over with an exclamatory “Come on!” to celebrate the point, her first in her match-winning game.

The scene was not uncommon throughout the match, as Bachini won several long baseline rallies and expressed her joy afterwards.

Syracuse (8-11, 3-10 Atlantic Coast) beat North Carolina State (10-14, 1-12), 5-2, on Friday afternoon at Drumlins Tennis Center with strong groundstrokes and patience. The match was full of long baseline rallies as a result of these elements, and the team was able to capitalize and take the victory.

Bachini, who won her match 7-5, 6-2, played against a player she had lost to handedly last season. This time, she was determined not to face the same outcome.

“Coach (Shelley) George came on the court and the first thing she said to me was ‘So how’d this go last time?’” Bachini said. “… She goes ‘OK, you just got to get more balls in play,’ and that’s exactly what I did out there. And it worked.”

While she did a good job of keeping her shots in the court, she still hit them with powerful strokes, maintaining her aggressiveness in the match.

She did so while waiting for the right moments to attack.

“I definitely wanted to make her stay out there for longer points,” Bachini said, “use my fitness to my advantage, I guess.”

Bachini said her backhand was stronger in today’s match than it has been recently, as she had more success with keeping it in play. It’s something that she tried to improve when practicing during the week.

Sophomore Valeria Salazar also played a match that featured long rallies from the baseline, and she won 6-4, 6-4.

“I was staying low pretty well, hitting deep shots,” Salazar said. “And I was just trying to be patient and try to make her miss or try to get that short ball to win.”

Salazar’s mindset in the match was to force her opponent to stay back, and she used her varied game to her advantage in this regard. As opposed to hitting solid groundstroke after solid groundstroke, she tried to mix up her arsenal of shots.

When she was up 5-3 in the second set after winning the first, Salazar played a point that lasted for over 20 shots. Throughout the point, she used not only strong groundstrokes with topspin but also drop shots and a lob that won her the point.

“I think that’s the kind of player I am,” Salazar said. “I’m kind of handy, so I’m able to do those shots, like slices or try to mix up with the spin.”

Senior Komal Safdar defeated her opponent easily 6-1, 6-2, and in the later stages of her match, she found success in a similar way to that of Salazar and Bachini.

At one point in the second set, two points that occurred in close proximity to each other featured a long baseline rally that Safdar won when her opponent hit the ball into the net.

Head coach Younes Limam coached his players to go for longer points and liked what he saw.

“We’re trying to be a little bit more physical and really being patient,” Limam said, “because at the end of the day … it really comes down to very few points.”

Published on April 17, 2015 at 7:44 pm

Contact Kevin: kjpacell@syr.edu