The women's tennis team correctly predicted that it would face a Syracuse team that made a lot of noise. But on Sunday, it was the Bears' ability to raise their intensity that left the Orange feeling blue.
With relative ease, Bruno swept its three weekend competitions at home, improving its season record to 5-4. The team's 6-1 victory over Syracuse (6-8) on Sunday came after two 7-0 victories on Saturday against the University of Rhode Island (1-2) and Bucknell (2-5).
Sunday's meet started off close, with the Bears clawing their way to win two of the three doubles pro sets. They then rode the momentum from the 1-0 start into singles play, where they showed they could ignore their opponent's chatty sideline, headed by former pro and ESPN commentator Luke Jensen.
No. 1 Bianca Aboubakare '11 demonstrated the Bears' surge of energy. She bounced back from a 6-3 loss in the first set to dominate the next two sets, 6-1, 6-1. After a first set filled with an uncharacteristic amount of unforced errors, she turned up the heat on Syracuse.
"I felt like they couldn't show us up on our own court, so I felt like I had to ... get pumped up," Aboubakare said.
Head Coach Paul Wardlaw said Aboubakare tried too hard in the first set to "outdo" her opponent's strong first shots instead of engaging in long rallies.
"Once she rode out the first strike, she was fine," he said.
Adding to her win against Bucknell on Saturday, the three-set victory was Aboubakare's sixth straight triumph.
Sara Mansur '09 continued Brown's string of victories and won both her matches over the weekend, winning 6-1, 6-4 against URI as the No. 1 seed and 6-0, 6-2 against Syracuse as No. 2. She said she tried to stay consistent against a Syracuse team that came in "with a lot of energy."
After being abroad during the fall semester, Mansur, who received an All-Ivy Honorable Mention last season for her doubles play, said she has regained last year's rhythm.
"I feel like I'm pretty much pretty close to being back," she said.
No. 3 Brett Finkelstein '09 swept her three weekend matches, finishing up with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Syracuse. Her winning streak now stands at five matches.
Wardlaw moved Finkelstein from the No. 4 seed to the No. 3 position earlier in the season and he said she has stepped up her game.
In addition to being mentally stronger in her new position, Finkelstein said she has made big improvements in her serving.
"Everything (is) finally all fitting together, and not just one thing is dominating," she said.
After her three-set win against Bucknell on Saturday, No. 4 Tanja Vucetic '10 looked strong in her 6-3, 6-4 win against Syracuse. Down 4-3 in the second set, Vucetic buckled down and served consistently to take the last three games.
No. 5 Marisa Schonfeld '11 turned in perhaps the grittiest performance of Sunday. She breezed to a 6-1 first set win in just 23 minutes, but she dropped the second set 6-4. Since Brown had already clinched a victory, the third set came down to a tiebreaker.
In the end, Schonfeld outlasted Syracuse's Chelsea Jones, 13-11, although neither player seemed ready to walk off the court at any point during the marathon tiebreaker. Each woman had staved off three match points in the tiebreaker with the score locked at 11-11. Ultimately, Schonfeld broke service and held her own serve to take the tight match.
After a strong second set by her opponent, Schonfeld said she stayed focused and kept her emotions in check.
"I didn't want to let anything bother me or frustrate me," the freshman said. "Maintaining your composure and intensity is going to give you the best chance to win."
The lone Syracuse point came against No. 6 Alexa Baggio '09, 6-4, 6-3. But commanding wins against URI and Bucknell left the strong hitter 2-1 on the weekend.
The Bears will ride their four-contest winning streak into next weekend, when they will play host to Massachusetts at 3 p.m. on Friday and West Virginia at 10 a.m. on Sunday, both at the Pizzitola Center.
Now having won 23 out of their last 24 individual singles matches, the team has shown it can do more than just talk the talk.
