Orange Start Weekend with 5-2 Win Over Pitt

Friday, March 30

Pittsburgh, PA

1 PM

Syracuse University

University of Pittsburgh

3/30/2018 3:36:00 PM | Tennis

Box Score

PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The No. 34 Orange (13-3, 5-3) matched their ACC wins total from a season ago with a 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Panthers (6-9, 0-8), Friday afternoon at Oxford Athletic Club. Syracuse has won four of its last five matches and looks to keep the winning ways going on Sunday when it hosts No. 3 Georgia Tech at 11 a.m. at Drumlins Tennis Club.

"The ladies di a great job today at staying focused and valuing every point and every match," said head coach Younes Limam. "No one is going to roll over for us even if we win a set easily. We need to play solid tennis in the upcoming matches and our attitude and effort needs to be great. We are very excited about all the opportunities ahead of us to show how good we can be."

Syracuse cruised to an early 1-0 lead after securing the doubles point with a pair of 6-2 victories at first (Gabriela Knutson and Miranda Ramirez) and second (Sofya Golubovskaya and Anna Shkudun) doubles. At the time of completion, the third doubles pairing of Maria Tritou and Dina Hegab held a 4-1 lead on their Pittsburgh opposition.

Singles play started strong for the Orange as Knutson tallied the first singles win for 'Cuse, defeating her opponent 6-0, 6-3. Fellow junior Hegab made it a 3-1 match in favor of the visitors with a quick two-set victory, 6-1, 6-3, over Natsumi Okamoto at fifth singles.

The match-clinching point came down to a tiebreak at sixth singles as junior Libi Mesh competed in a hard-fought second set to come out ahead, 6-2, 7-6(4), and give Syracuse the match.

Shkudun set the tone early in her match, taking the first set 6-1, but the freshman fell short in set two, 4-6 to send the match to a third set. It was a back and forth match but the Ukraine native rallied to win the third set 7-5 and make the final score 5-2.

Singles Competition (order of finish: 1,4,5,6,2,3)

#9 Gabriela Knutson (SYR) def. Gabriela Rezende (PITT) 6-0, 6-3
Camila Moreno (PITT) def. Miranda Ramirez (SYR) 2-6, 7-6, 2-2, ret.
Anna Shkudun (SYR) def. Luisa Varon (PITT) 6-1, 4-6, 7-5
Claudia Bartolome (PITT) def. Maria Tritou (SYR) 7-5, 6-0
Dina Hegab (SYR) def. Natsumi Okamoto (PITT) 6-1, 6-3
Libi Mesh (SYR) def. Callie Frey (PITT) 6-2, 7-6(4)

Doubles Competition (order of finish: 1,2)

#37 Gabriela Knutson/Miranda Ramirez (SYR) def. Callie Frey/Camila Moreno (PITT) 6-2
Sofya Golubovskaya/Anna Shkudun (SYR) def. Natsumi Okamoto/Luisa Varon (PITT) 6-2
Maria Tritou/Dina Hegab (SYR) vs. Clara Lucas/Claudia Bartolome (PITT) 4-1, unfinished