Sonya Treshcheva wore just one shoe on court three of Drumlins Country Club. It was nearing the end of Sunday’s comeback win against Florida State, and all of Treshcheva’s teammates were cheering for Sofya Golubovskaya, who was a point away from clinching the match.

But in between cheers, some looked down at Treshcheva’s exposed foot. The freshman rolled her ankle in February, and Miranda Ramirez and Gabriela Knutson started to laugh. Trescheva soon joined. She headed off the court, reached into her bag and slipped her left shoe back on.

Trescheva’s left ankle has anchored her for over a month, and when she returned, it was only in doubles. The freshman was immediately inserted into the Syracuse’s lineup to start this season after a recommendation from her childhood best friend, Golubovskaya. Now, her ankle is finally healthy. Sunday marked her first singles match since Feb. 3 and while she lost —  6-4, 6-1 — her return brings hope of reestablishing the backend of Syracuse’s lineup on both singles and doubles.

“I feel I’m great now,” Trescheva said. “So much easier compared to the first semester.”

In her first match singles match since a 6-3, 6-2 win at Boston College, Treshcheva started off slow playing Ariana Rahmanparast. Sporting a left ankle brace, Treshcheva went down a break. But holding serve at game point, Treshcheva hit a tough shot to the corner that Rahmanparast returned out. Guzal Yusupova, watching from the bench area, shouted, “Nice Sonya!”

After going up 40-0 in the next game, Treshcheva fired a forehand winner down the sideline to go back on serve at 4-3. After getting broken again, a series of lobs ended with a Treshcheva forehand shot to the corner to bring it to 5-4. She pumped her fist and head coach Younes Limam high-fived her.

But that was the only high point of her match, and Rahmanparast dominated the rest of the match. Limam believed it was a step in the right direction for her progress.

“First that was very competitive,” Limam said of Treshcheva’s match. “It’s not easy … You stop for a while and it’s hard to get back in that rhythm.”

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Treshcheva said prior to Sunday that her ankle has felt “so much better” and she can now play like “normal.” She was eager to play again, so she consulted Golubovskaya, who gave her encouragement. Golubovskaya told her to come back when she was fully ready, as Treshcheva tried to push herself to recover as fast as possible.

“She’s growing as a person,” Knutson said on Feb. 17. “It’s much harder to be on the team and watch everybody else play … at that point you make a choice whether to be a good supporter or just give up. And she’s taken the high road, and really been a great supporter of the team.”

Playing both doubles and singles consistently is the goal for Treshcheva, though she understands she cannot control the decision, only Limam can. Trescheva is now 3-3 in singles, and when paired with her childhood doubles partner Golubovskaya, she’s 4-2 with four unfinished matches.

Syracuse is 3-1 when the pairing that started the spring ranked No. 24 in the nation wins in doubles. With doubles play hurting Syracuse’s team outcomes throughout the season, having Trescheva and Golubovskaya back together could fix their struggles, Limam said.

“I was super excited to play with her again, because I miss her a lot on the court,” Golubovskaya said. “It was so much fun playing again with her. I think she’s crossing a lot on the net and she’s helping me with that. We just, like, work like that.”

After Treshcheva’s loss Saturday, she ate a banana before disappearing from the court for a minute. “Good try,” a spectator said, offering her encouragement as she passed. Treshcheva received a fist bump from Masha Tritou, and went back to watching her teammates’ matches, the same thing she’d done for the last month.

Published on March 26, 2019 at 1:05 am

Contact Eric: estorms@syr.edu