By Riley Vance —

Women’s tennis (10-3) hosted No. 23 Syracuse and Clemson over the weekend. Louisville lost its third straight match to Syracuse, then rebounded with a close victory over Clemson.

Syracuse

The Cardinals faced a tough opponent in the visiting Orange and ended up losing 6-1.

Redshirt senior Aleksandra Mally and freshman Chloe Hamlin finished doubles play first, losing 6-2.

Juniors Raven Neely and Diana Wong responded on court two, winning 6-2.

Senior Sena Suswam and freshman Dina Chaika put up a good fight at the No. 1 spot but ultimately fell 6-4, giving the doubles point to Syracuse.

Singles didn’t go much smoother for the Cards, as the Orange proved to be very strong competitors.

Louisville came out on top at the No. 4 spot as Neely won quickly with a score of 6-0, 6-2. Hamlin and sophomore Nikolina Jovic fought hard but came up short.

Clemson

The Cardinals turned things around with a Sunday victory over Clemson, ending their losing streak with a close 4-3 win.

The lineup for doubles was the same as for Syracuse: Suswam and Chaika at No. 1, Neely and Wong at No. 2 and Mally and Hamlin at No.3.

Neely and Wong finished with a 6-3 win, but the Tigers took the doubles point.

The singles portion of the match was lengthy, with five out of six matches going into third sets.

Wong finished first with a 6-2, 6-2 loss, followed by Neely with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 win.

Next came No. 3 Mally (3-6, 7-6, 6-2) and No. 4 Hamlin (3-6, 7-5, 6-4), both with two more points for the Cards.

Senior Suswam wasn’t able to bring another victory to keep the streak going, but No. 2 Jovic finished strong with a score of 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 to win the match.

Women’s tennis travels to take on NC State on Friday, March 1 at noon.

You can follow the Louisville Cardinal on Twitter @thecardsports.

Photos by Riley Vance / The Louisville Cardinal