Syracuse tennis selected for 2021 NCAA Tournament

On Monday night, the Syracuse Orange tennis team learned they’re headed to the NCAA Tournament. SU, 45th in the ITA rankings, went 8-11 on the year including an impressive 4-3 victory over Georgia Tech.

The Orange’s journey in the NCAA Tournament starts against the Kentucky Wildcats, who are 26th in the ITA rankings. They’ll face off in Berkeley, Calif. on May 7, with the winner moving on to play the winner of 16-seed California vs. San Jose State. So... are we saying that Cal could get right back in this?

Syracuse is led by standout freshman Viktoriya Kanapatskaya, who’s the 13th-ranked singles player in the country and was All-ACC in 2021. The star, from Belarus, is also part of the 37th-ranked doubles team in the nation, along with Natalie Novotna.

SU last made the NCAA Tournament in 2019, when they beat Wisconsin in round one before falling to eventual national champ Stanford in round two. If the Orange want to advance further this year, they’ll have to beat both Kentucky and Cal, then potentially top-seed North Carolina — who already beat Syracuse 6-1 in early April.

We’ll have more on the results of this matchup later in the week. Let’s hope the Orange can pull off something interesting in NorCal.