Sofya Golubovskaya walked into Younes Limam’s office on the morning of Feb. 15 and faced her head coach. For the past week, Syracuse didn’t know if it’d have enough players for the Boston College match. Golubovskaya’s undisclosed early-season injury compounded with Polina Kozyreva’s hurt ankle from eight days prior.

But a couple hours before SU faced the Eagles, Golubovskaya decided to play through those injuries and step on the court for the first time in a month.

“I’ll do anything for our team,” Golubovskaya told Limam. That meant avoiding a forfeited point.

As Syracuse started its 2020 season 6-0, injuries threatened to end the streak. Just days after Golubovskaya returned, she played just two sets against Columbia — one in doubles and one in singles – before retiring due to injury, and the Orange lost their first match of the year. Two days later against No. 10 Duke, she didn’t play at all. And with Syracuse (6-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) entering the heart of ACC schedule, fielding a full lineup is vital against lineups where four ranked singles opponents await. 

“We’re controlling what we can control,” Limam said. “You know, sometimes it takes a little bit longer to recover.”

The week leading up to the match against Columbia, Golubovskaya had been “day-to-day,” according to Limam. But before warmups, Golubovskaya’s entire right arm and shoulder were wrapped by the training staff. After she retired in singles, trainers placed an oversized ice pack on Golubovskaya’s shoulder blade, tightening it with tape which they wound around her body.

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Without Golubovskaya – who’s played second or third singles this season – the rest of the Orange moved up a position. That pushed sophomore Sonya Treshcheva or freshman Kim Hansen into third singles for various matches. 

During her freshman season, Treshcheva had never started higher than fifth singles for the Orange. In her four matches playing third singles this year, she’s 1-3 while Hansen won her only match at that spot.

Without six healthy players, Syracuse has eked out a 2-2 record. Matches within doubles became more difficult when the Orange couldn’t field three pairings, and they lost that point even in their two wins against St. John’s and Boston College. As a result, Syracuse had to find different ways to win four singles matches.

“At the end of the day, you need four points,” Limam said.

Against Boston College, Golubovskaya regularly grabbed the back of her upper right leg as well as her lower back. After her singles match against Kylie Wilcox ended, Golubovskaya laid down on a towel to the side. A trainer walked over to Golubovskaya, took hold of her right leg and bent it in various directions.

SU didn’t come anywhere close to finding four points against Columbia and Duke, winning just two match points in total. Kozyreva returned against the Blue Devils but just played singles. After the match, Kozyreva and Limam agreed she was rusty during that first singles set. 

But as the match wore on, Kozyreva improved. First, it was learning to trust her left ankle and jump into her serves. After that it was a matter of “feeling” Hannah Zhao’s game, the ball against her racket strings and the court under her feet, Kozyreva said. Once the Russian freshman reacclimated herself, she won the second set 6-4. 

“It was a lot of effort to get back on court in the short time,” Kozyreva said. Now, Limam and Syracuse just hope she can stay there.

Published on February 26, 2020 at 10:55 pm

Contact Thomas: tgshults@syr.edu | @ThomasShults_