After a brief downpour soaked the courts minutes before match time, a crew of people – complete with leaf blowers, rollers and other types of equipment – labored tirelessly to dry the area.
Turns out, they received a bigger workout than the Canes, who breezed past No. 71 Syracuse, 4-0, after a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on Friday evening for their second consecutive sweep. No. 14 Miami didn’t drop a set all day.
“I’m just happy with the energy, happy with the way we struck the ball,” Miami head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews said. “We took care of business in a timely fashion and did what we needed to do.”
The Orange (9-10, 3-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) featured two top-100 doubles pairs, but the Hurricanes (15-4, 9-3 ACC) made quick work of them.
On Court 1, fourth-year junior Daevenia Achong and fifth-year senior Eden Richardson, together ranked No. 28, took less than 20 minutes to beat No. 86 Shiori Ito and Sofya Treshcheva 6-0.
Third-year sophomore Maya Tahan, who normally forms the No. 59 doubles duo with Diana Khodan, was paired with freshman Tatyana Nikolenko for the third straight match after the Ukrainian tore her ACL a few weeks back. Tahan’s stellar net play proved to be the deciding factor in a tightly contested match, as they secured their first-ever ranked win as a doubles pair – and Nikolenko’s first ranked win as a collegian – by downing No. 40 Miyuka Kimoto and Polina Kozyreva, 6-4, to clinch the doubles point.
The other match was left unfinished, with sophomores Audrey Boch-Collins and Isabella Pfennig leading Ines Fonte and Viktoriya Kanapatskaya, 4-3.
In singles, Miami swiftly clinched the match.
Tahan continued her spectacular outing on Court 4, taking the first 10 games of a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Kozyreva.
Moments later, No. 31 Achong put the Canes up 3-0, besting Kimoto 6-2, 6-0 in one of her most dominant displays of the year. Her deadly serve racked up ace after ace, including one game where she hit four in a row to win.
With her parents in attendance after coming from Germany, No. 80 Pfennig sealed the match, dominating Zeynep Erman 6-1, 6-1.
With dark clouds in the sky, all remaining matches were suspended. The victory moved Miami to 13-1 all-time against Syracuse and marked the 159th shutout of Yaroshuk-Tews’s 21-year head coaching career.
Miami returns to the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on Sunday for Senior Day, where Eden Richardson will be honored before the Canes face Boston College in their last regular season match of the year.
“I am really excited,” Richardson said ahead of Sunday’s contest. “It’s a bit nerve-wracking, too. A whole new chapter of my life is coming up … so mixed emotions.”
After the festivities, the match will begin at 11 a.m.