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Constance Levivier was supposed to be lacing her shoes for James Madison after signing a National Letter of Intent in June 2023. Yet, on Saturday, she went toe-to-toe against the Dukes.

A Paris native, Levivier received an offer from former JMU head coach Shelley Jaudon to play tennis in the United States for the upcoming 2023-24 season, something she saw as inconceivable before occurring.

But when Jaudon left to become the head tennis coach at Kentucky, Levivier was without a place to go. That’s when Syracuse head coach Younes Limam came into the picture.

When Levivier joined SU last year, the season had already begun. By the time last season’s campaign wrapped up, Levivier boasted a 6-12 overall record in singles and doubles. So far this season, Levivier has won both of her singles matches, including the No. 6 singles match in Syracuse’s (2-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) 5-2 win against James Madison (0-4, 0-0 Sun Belt Conference).

“We’re very proud of her. I think she put in a lot of hard work this offseason and just came in with a lot of confidence and took it to her opponent,” Limam said.

Though Syracuse controlled the single matchups, winning five out of six, JMU started the encounter with the lead. The Dukes swept the Orange in the doubles, which didn’t involve Levivier.

Against Cornell on Wednesday, that was also the case. Levivier played unscored singles against other SU players, who didn’t appear while sweeping the Big Red in doubles. When the singles matches arrived, Levivier played in the No. 5 slot, winning 6-2 and 6-1 against Alexandra Savu.

“I don’t take (not playing doubles) as an advantage. I’m just going there, and I’m trying to be ready mentally,” Levivier said.

In the first set, Levivier dominated JMU’s Corinna Rietmann with a mix of delicate and strong hits, winning 6-1. All Syracuse single competitors took the first set against its JMU counterparts.

Yet in the second set, Rietmann stormed back after Levivier took the first game to lead 2-1. In the fourth game, Levivier began to tire, resulting in back-to-back missed returns. However, she persevered and won the fourth game to tie the set 2-2.

Rietmann then won the fifth game and retook the lead at 3-2. In response, Levivier slammed the ball against the wall in frustration and returned to the bench to talk with an Intercollegiate Tennis Association official about her outburst.

Rietmann and Levivier split games six and seven again, leaving Rietmann within two games of a single victory at 4-3. But Levivier wasn’t done against her former squad just yet.

She stormed back to win two straight games and take a 5-4 lead into a decisive 10th game. Levivier’s backhand on her match point was too much for Rietmann to handle, as it sailed into the net, sealing a 6-4 set win.

“I think it’s very good for confidence to win those matches, so I’m really happy with that. For the team, it’s good to bring those points and then the team felt more confident after that, so I’m really happy,” Levivier said.

From there, the Orange took control of the singles matches and sealed their victory. Miyuka Kimoto’s three-game comeback win against Elena Kraleva made it mathematically impossible for JMU to produce a miraculous comeback.

JMU’s lone single victory came two matches after Kimoto won.

“It means more because it was a bit weird to play them but I didn’t really think of it. I just played a player. It doesn’t really matter if she’s from JMU or not,” Levivier said.

Published on January 25, 2025 at 4:24 pm

Contact Quinn: qdpostma@syr.edu