Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Syracuse tennis begins the 2026 season looking to post its first winning season since 2023. After going 11-11 overall and 2-10 in conference play last year, SU finished 16th out of 17 teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Despite their ugly showing against conference opponents, the Orange made a surprising run in the ACC Tournament. They handled 17th-seeded Boston College and upset No. 9 seed Clemson before falling to No. 8 seed Georgia Tech in the third round.

Now, after the departures of last season’s veterans, Shiori Ito and Miyuka Kimoto, Syracuse looks to find a way out of the basement of the ACC and build off its late-season conference tournament run.

Here’s what to know ahead of the Orange’s 2026 season, which begins versus Cornell on Saturday.

Maintain early momentum

Syracuse and head coach Younes Limam are no strangers to hot starts. In the past three seasons, the Orange have combined for 20-1 over their first seven matches. However, these strong starts have not translated to consistent success.

In 2022-23, the Orange held an remarkable 11-1 record into the first three matches of conference play, before ending the season by losing nine straight. A year later, they notched an impressive win at Clemson in their second ACC contest, but struggled the rest of the way with a 3-10 record in their final 13 contests.

Last spring, the Orange opened their season in a familiar fashion as the prior two, starting the season with a seven-game win streak to open the season before losing three straight matches against ACC opponents. This skid continued, as they went a disappointing 4-8 to round out the season.

This season, Syracuse will aim to match its recent nonconference success and carry that momentum into their ACC matchups. Otherwise, it risks facing a result it knows all too well.

Fall summary

In the fall, SU put together a solid campaign through its four tournaments. At the Villanova/UD Invitational and the UB Indoor Invitational, Syracuse totaled 13 combined singles wins and six combined doubles wins, with all six players notching at least one singles win.

At the ITA New England Regionals, SU caught fire and claimed two runner-up titles. As the top seed in the tournament, Serafima Shastova followed up her 2024 tournament win with a third straight finals appearance. Doubles pair Nelly Knezkova and Anastasia Sysoeva also made it to a finals match before falling in a tiebreak to Yale.

In the last tournament of the fall season, the ITA New England Sectionals, the duo of Knezkova and Sysoeva finished in fourth place after losing in the semifinals. Sysoeva also dominated the consolation bracket, winning the final round after her opponent retired.

Shastova built on her solid fall tournament play with a selection to the NCAA Championship Singles Bracket. She lost in the first round against Washington’s Erika Matsuda in a tiebreak.

Roster rebuild

Syracuse’s 2025-26 roster is composed of a familiar cast of characters. All six of SU’s current rostered players have returned from last season. The only players who didn’t return are Shiori Ito and Miyuka Kimoto, who both graduated. Despite the majority of last year’s team coming back, the losses of Ito and Kimoto are significant.

Ito and Kimoto were bulk contributors on the court. They played in eight different doubles pairings last season between the two of them, contributing to more than half of the pairings throughout the season. They played a combined 71 matches across singles and doubles play, and won 32 of them.

Despite the sub-.500 winning mark, the volume of matches played by Ito and Kimoto will be difficult to replace. In their absence, head coach Younes Limam and the Orange will rely on players like Shastova and Monika Wojcik to carry their success from last season into 2026. Shastova and Wojcik were reliable last year and are primed to see even better results this year with more playing time.

Additionally, sophomore Haram Kim and senior Constance Levivier are both poised to have bigger roles.

Kim played in just two singles matches last season against Drexel and Fordham, but won each handedly. She’ll likely play in some doubles matches this season as well. In 2022, she won an ITF junior doubles title in her native South Korea. If she can become an effective doubles contributor she could help to alleviate some of the Orange’s recent woes in doubles play.

Levivier will also benefit from more playing opportunities. She won four of the five singles matches in 2025. However, she only played in early season nonconference matches and didn’t play higher than No. 4 singles. This season, she will likely fill a similar spot, and if she can adjust well to ACC opponents, it’ll boost the squad overall. She struggled last season in doubles, especially when paired with Sysoeva.

Schedule breakdown

Syracuse has a chance to build early momentum with two home matches against Cornell and Fordham before hitting the road to play two tough opponents in Florida Atlantic and Florida International. They will round out nonconference play with home matches against UMass, Boston University and University at Buffalo.

Then, the Orange will face two difficult road tests to kick off ACC play. They play at UNC and Duke, both of whom ranked top 5 in last season’s final ITA National Rankings. SU will take another trip to play Boston College before facing a conference home stand against SMU, Stanford and Cal. Syracuse will then have four straight road matches against N.C. State, Wake Forest, UMiami and Florida State. SU will end the season at home, facing Georgia Tech and Clemson before the ACC Tournament is held April 14-19.

Published on January 14, 2026 at 10:29 pm
Contact Ben: bglofy@syr.edu