Shiori Ito collects singles, doubles victories in Georgia Tech loss

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Entering Syracuse’s match versus Georgia Tech, Shiori Ito hadn’t won a doubles match in nearly a month. Her last victory came versus Cornell on Jan. 28.

Ito finally rebounded against Georgia Tech (6-4, 2-0 ACC) with wins in her doubles and singles matches. Despite Ito’s success, Syracuse (7-2, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) fell 4-3 to GT for its second loss of the season and first against an Atlantic Coast Conference opponent. After overcoming doubles losses to both Boston College and Clemson, the Orange couldn’t climb out of the early deficit Sunday.

“On Friday, I lost to an opponent that I lost last year to,” Ito said. “I was really frustrated, so I (felt like) I needed to win today.”

Following a strong start to the season on the singles side, Ito had been through ups and downs in the last few matches. Although she performed well versus Boston College and the University of Massachusetts, she was also overpowered against Columbia and Clemson. With Georgia Tech posing as another difficult ACC match, Ito lived up to the challenge.

During her doubles match with Miyuka Kimoto, Ito cruised to a 6-3 victory over Scarlett Nicholson and Given Roach. The duo won the Orange’s only doubles match of the day.

Kimoto rode the momentum into singles. That wasn’t the case with Ito as she started slow. Although she did put up a fight, Ito struggled to keep up against Mahak Jain, who took the first set 6-4.

“In the first set, my opponent made more shots than me,” Ito said. “So I realized I needed to be patient and keep fighting.”

After the first set, Ito got a better understanding of Jain’s game plan against her. In the second set, Ito came out firing and won convincingly in the ensuing set.

Early on in the deciding set, Ito and Jain exchanged point after point. As the set reached its final stages, Ito seized control of the match to win it 6-3.

“She had a few misses, gave me a chance (to get back into the game), which (allowed me) to flip the score,” Ito said.

Although Ito came through, Syracuse was unable to get to four points and lost the game.

“I thought we battled and poured our hearts out,” SU head coach Younes Limam said. “We were in a good position (to take the match). (There were) a lot of deuce points and (we have) to commit to those big moments.”