No. 7 seed Syracuse (14-7, 7-7 Atlantic Coast) won its ACC tournament second round game against No. 10 seed North Carolina State (15-11, 6-8 Atlantic Coast) in comeback fashion, 4-3, on Thursday. The win was Syracuse’s first ever in the ACC Tournament.

Syracuse started the morning by dropping both of its doubles games and went down 1-0 in the match. Two doubles teams, Anna Shkudun and Dina Hegab as well as Maria Tritou and Nicole Mitchell, lost their games, 6-1 and 6-4, respectively. The duo of Gabriela Knutson and Valeria Salazar had their match called off after N.C. State already secured the point.

In singles, Knutson started by winning her game in two sets of 6-1 and 6-2 to tie the score at one. N.C. State won the next two games to go up 3-1 after both Tritou and Hegab lost their games. Tritou lost in two sets, 7-6 and 6-3, and Hegab lost in two sets, 7-5 and 6-2.

To win the match, Syracuse needed to win three games in a row. SU did that and started its comeback with Shkudun winning her game in back-to-back 6-4 sets.

Salazar then won her game in three sets. She won her first set 6-2 then lost the second set 7-6 before winning the final set 6-3.

With the score tied at three, the final decided the match.

Libi Mesh, who had been in similar high pressure situations in the last few weeks, lost her first set, 6-2, then won the final two sets, 6-2 and 7-5, to win the match for Syracuse, 4-3, and move the team to the next round.

With the win, Syracuse gets a rematch with No. 2 seed Miami (17-4, 12-2) at 9 a.m. on Friday with a spot in the semifinals on the line.

On April 15, Syracuse lost to Miami, 6-1, in Coral Gables.

Published on April 21, 2016 at 7:50 pm

Contact Jake: jafalk@syr.edu