Syracuse women’s tennis makes NCAA Tournament, faces Wisconsin in first round

For the second straight season, the Syracuse Orange women’s tennis team (13-12, 5-9) will be headed to the NCAA Tournament. After the field was announced on Monday evening, SU will face the Wisconsin Badgers (18-5, 9-2) in the first round out in Stanford, Calif.

Syracuse is up against a steep test with the Badgers, though actually comes in ranked slightly higher of the two squads. SU’s 31st in the latest polls, while Wisconsin is 40th. The winner of that matchup — playing this Saturday at noon ET — will move on to face the winner of 3-seed Stanford (22-1, 10-0) vs. New Mexico State (15-9, 3-2). Should the Orange manage to win two games in that tough corner of the bracket, they’d advance to the “Sweet 16” which could feature conference foes like Boston College or Florida State.

SU has two top-100 singles players on the roster in Gabriela Knutson (No. 13) and Miranda Ramirez (No. 97). If Syracuse can beat the Badgers on Saturday, it’ll mark just the second NCAA Tournament match win in program history.

The Orange fell to Wichita State in the first round of last year’s event, and lost to Florida in the second round back in 2016 after beating Georgia State in round one. This is the third NCAA berth in the program’s history, all in the last four seasons.

Good luck to SU this Saturday!