Syracuse Tennis: No. 32 Orange Clinch First-Round Bye in ACC Tournament

The Syracuse Orange (13-7, 7-7 ACC) notched their seventh conference victory yesterday morning to earn a first-round bye in the ACC tournament which begins this Wednesday in Cary, North Carolina.

The match began with the doubles round, as it always does. After Virginia Tech knocked off sophomore Nicole Mitchell and freshman MariaTritou, graduate student Anna Shkudun and her partner freshman Dina Hegab defeated Elena Cerezo-Cordina and Sansitha Nandakumar to tie the score at one game apiece. Freshman Gabriela Knutson and junior Valeria Salazar followed them up with a victory over Francesca Fusinato and Kelly Williford to give the Orange a 1-0 lead heading into singles play.

Tech's Raluca Mita and Williford rattled off two straight-set victories over Syracuse's freshman Libi Mesh and Tritou to bump the match 2-1 in their favor. Those would be the only wins for the Hokies as the Orange secured the victory with four-straight themselves from the likes of Hegab, Salazar, Knutson, and Shkudun.

Shkudun's defeat of Fusinato was icing on the cake, as Syracuse had already won the match on Knutson's comeback victory over Tech's Caroline Daxhelet. She won the first set 6-4, but Fusinato tied the game with a 6-1 victory. In the highly-contested final set, Shkudun buckled down and minimized the many mistakes she had made in the second set to secure the victory and thus prompt her teammates to rush onto the court to celebrate.

With the win, the Orange secured the seventh seed in the ACC Tournament and will play the winner of the match between 10-seed NC State and 15-seed Louisville on Thursday at 10:00 am ET. You can view the entire bracket here.

G'Orange!