Late Thursday afternoon, someone hit junior Jessica Schlosser’s car. No major damage. Just a little scratch. It was the kind of accident that means nothing in the long run, but infuriates the car’s owner.

The Syracuse tennis team’s weekend, with matches against Boston College last Friday and Brown on Saturday, wasn’t much different.

In their first match, the Orangewomen lost to Big East rival BC, 5-2. In their second, they fell to Brown, 6-1. That means two losses early in the season, but Syracuse is more annoyed than worried.

‘Yeah, we lost, 6-1, and we lost, 5-2, but we were close,’ head coach Mac Gifford said. ‘On paper, we’re supposed to lose to these teams. But we had chances to win.’

At Boston College, the Orangewomen were unable to capitalize on their doubles strength. Only the pair of senior Daniela Kaluskova and freshman Wei-Ming Leong won, beating a BC tandem, 8-5. Seniors Masha Kabanova and Shervin Saedinia lost, 8-2, and sophomores Kristine Beche Holte and Trine Lise Juliussen were beaten, 8-1.

In singles play, the Orangewomen had more trouble. Kaluskova defeated Nida Waseem, 6-3, 6-4, and Juliussen beat Morgan Landes in three sets (3-6, 6-4, 6-3). SU came up short in the other four matches.

The Orangewomen’s woes continued at Brown. Again, doubles failed to earn SU the point. Holte and Juliussen won, 8-5, but Saedinia and Kabanova lost in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-3).

In singles, Holte beat Alex Arlak in three sets (6-4, 3-6, 6-2), but all the other Orangewomen lost.

Though SU played on consecutive days, it rejects the theory that its poor play resulted from fatigue. Instead, Leong said Syracuse might not have been ready for an away match.

The Orangewomen have 15 games remaining on their schedule, 10 on the road.

‘We still have a lot of matches to go,’ Leong said. ‘Hopefully playing at home this week will get us back on track. We just hope that the season ahead of us will be better.’

It might be. Last weekend, Syracuse went into both meets overmatched and left somewhat proud of its efforts.

‘We’ve lost to Boston College the past three years,’ Juliussen said, ‘so it’s not like this was a big surprise for anybody. We haven’t played a lot of matches, and we’re just getting started.

‘But, of course, it sucks losing.’

Published on February 10, 2003 at 12:00 pm