When Gabriela Knutson traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma her freshman year and played in the NCAA doubles tournament, she watched as partner Valeria Salazar competed in singles as well. Knutson observed a “prestige” that accompanied the singles players and vowed to make it one day in a slot.

“I felt really proud to play doubles,” Knutson said last week, “but I was like, I want to be here in singles.”

Behind a 16-8 singles record, Knutson earned her second-consecutive NCAA singles and doubles tournament berth on Tuesday night, securing one of 49 at-large selections and a 9-16 seed. The tournament begins May 20 in Orlando, Florida, and Knutson is the only player — singles or doubles — who will represent Syracuse. 

Additionally, the final ITA rankings before the NCAA Tournament were released on Wednesday, with Syracuse remaining at No. 31 and Knutson and Miranda Ramirez dropping in the singles rankings. However, the two rose 12 spots in doubles to No. 55 and the Sofya Golubovskaya and Sonya Treshcheva pairing jumped back into the rankings at No. 81 after falling out last week. Golubovskaya and Treshcheva haven’t been paired together since April 14 at Clemson.

Knutson, a senior, dropped only one spot from No. 13 to No. 14, while Ramirez dropped two spots from No. 97 to No. 99. Their doubles ranking ties the highest since a Sept. 11 preseason ranking of No. 4. Last season, the pair peaked at No. 8 and became the first All-American doubles pairing in program history behind a 17-7 record. But the two were unable to earn a repeat selection for the national tournament this year.

SU (13-12, 5-9 ACC) will travel to the Stanford Taube Tennis Center and face No. 35 Wisconsin (18-5, 9-2 Big 10) on Saturday at 12 p.m. after earning its third tournament berth in four seasons. The Badgers rose five spots in this week’s rankings after making it to the Big 10 semifinals where they fell to Illinois, 4-0.