SU beats Georgia Tech 4-1 for 1st win over Yellow Jackets in 5 years
Syracuse tennis defeated Georgia Tech for the first time in five years with a 4-1 home victory Friday. Peter Radosh | Asst. Copy Editor
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On Friday, Syracuse was reminded how its 2025 postseason run came to an end.
In the 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, SU was swept 4-0 by Georgia Tech after upsetting Clemson in the second round. Friday, the Orange met the Yellow Jackets again in a match with heavy playoff implications.
Syracuse, coming off an underwhelming four-game road trip, returned to Drumlins Country Club with something to prove. A win would boost SU’s place in the conference standings and hand it some revenge. The Orange did both.
Syracuse (7-11, 3-8 Atlantic Coast) took care of Georgia Tech (10-12, 4-7 Atlantic Coast) for the first time since 2021, defeating the Yellow Jackets 4-1. Despite the score, the final few sets were tightly contested.
“I think the score doesn’t do justice to how close the match was,” SU head coach Younes Limam said postgame.
Georgia Tech also entered the match with a chip on its shoulder. The Yellow Jackets started their final road trip 0-2, getting swept by No. 24 Duke and No. 5 North Carolina. Additionally, they’ve only won one road match this season, defeating Kennesaw State 4-1.
In a season where doubles has often not gone Syracuse’s way, the Orange couldn’t have asked for a better start. Although the No. 2 doubles pairing of Serafima Shastova and Monika Wojcik started slow, SU’s No. 1 and No. 3 doubles jumped out to a 3-0 start.
This trend wouldn’t last on any court. GT’s No. 3 pairing of Leena Bennetto and Emma Scaldalai dropped six of the next seven matches to fall 6-4. On the other hand, Wojcik and Shastova found their footing. After a dominant set to go up 4-3, the duo didn’t look back, advancing to win the set 6-3.
The doubles point come down to the No. 1 match of Nelly Knezkova and Anastasia Sysoeva versus Georgia Tech’s Alejandra Cruz and Seri Nayuki, and it didn’t disappoint. Thanks to multiple Knezkova aces, SU took the set in a 7-2 tiebreak, earning Syracuse its first doubles point since its match against Boston College on Feb. 28.
“Nelly has an incredible serve, one of the best in the country,” Limam said. “The biggest thing in moments like this, I’ve told her all the time, (her) serve is one of her biggest weapons. She has to trust it. She’s never, ever, going to forget how to serve.”
The Orange rode their wave of momentum into singles, where they led early in five of the six matches. The only exception was Sysoeva, who was swept 6-0, 6-0 by Cruz, the International Tennis Association’s No. 66 singles player.
Bennetto and Wojcik were rolling from the first serve, each handling their opponents in seven games. Throughout their second sets, the two remained practically in sync despite being on opposite ends of the facility. They both gained a 5-1 advantage almost at the same time.
Bennetto closed her match with ease, winning 6-2 and giving Syracuse the edge. Despite dropping a few toward the end, Wojcik let out an emphatic yell as she secured the Orange a 3-1 lead, winning her second set 6-3.
Knezkova and Shastova were both nearly flawless in their first sets, never trailing once. However, the second sets were much more competitive.
Shastova started the set up 3-0 before faltering. Eventually, the match was level at 5-5. After a ball sailed out of bounds, Shastova appeared frustrated, but she quickly regained herself.
As the match went to a tiebreak, with Knezkova a game away from losing the set, Shastova had a chance to give the Orange their first win in two weeks. Up 5-2, Shastova was forced to lob the ball high into the air as a recovery shot. What should’ve been a routine overhead for Georgia Tech’s Taly Licht went into the net, shuffling Shastova one point away from victory. In the next point, an identical lob from Shastova presented itself, and an identical overhead shot into the net from Licht sealed the match.
“We have a bitter memory with (Georgia Tech),” Knezkova said, “so I think it’s really good that we all really stepped up and showed them.”
