After opening the ACC tournament with a first-round bye, No. 27 Syracuse (17-6, 8-6 Atlantic Coast) made light work of Pittsburgh (7-16, 0-14), 4-1, in Cary, North Carolina. The victory is the Orange’s first win in an ACC tournament since 2016.  

SU opened up the match with quick doubles play to get on the board early. Sofya Golubovskaya and Anna Shkudun swept Pitt’s Claudia Bartolome and Clara Lucas, 6-0. Minutes later, SU’s No. 10 pairing of Gabriela Knutson and Miranda Ramirez beat Callie Frey and Camila Moreno, 6-1, to go up a point.

Early into singles play, Dina Hegab retired her match up 3-2 in fifth singles. There was no immediate update behind the reasoning of the retirement. Because of the loss, Pitt tied the match up at one-apiece.

No. 4 Gabriela Knutson cruised to a first set victory, 6-1, but struggled to lead in the second set. Knotted up at 5-5, Knutson took the match’s final two games to win, 6-1, 7-5. In the fourth slot, Anna Shkudun only dropped four games to win 6-1, 6-3, to give the Orange its third point on the day.

With one point remaining to clinch the match, Ramirez stepped up for SU. In the first set, Ramirez fell behind 4-5 against Moreno, but recovered to win the first set, 7-5. After the 4-5 deficit, Ramirez won nine of her last 11 games to clinch the match for the Orange in a 7-5, 6-2 victory.

With the victory, Syracuse advances to the third round of the ACC tournament where it will face No. 4 Georgia Tech, a team SU upset earlier this season, tomorrow at 1 p.m.