One day removed from an appearance in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, Syracuse jumped three spots in the Associated Press Top 25 poll to No. 14 in the country Monday — setting the program record for highest ranking in history for the third week in a row.

SU (25-7, 13-3 ACC) lost to No. 2 Notre Dame on Sunday, 68-57, ending its quest for just the second conference title in program history, but will enter the NCAA tournament having won 11 of its last 12 games.

Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch gave the Orange its highest vote at No. 6.

Syracuse beat North Carolina State handily in the quarterfinals on Friday and upset then-No. 7 Louisville, 80-75, on Saturday. SU avenged its blowout loss to the Cardinals on Jan. 25 — its last regular season loss before its late-season run — and played closer with the Fighting Irish than it did in the 90-62 Jan. 21 meeting between the teams.

“We’re very satisfied and I think we’re peaking at the right time,” Syracuse guard Alexis Peterson said after the game on Sunday. “No one thought we would get here. No one thought we would beat Louisville. No one thought we’d beat N.C. State again. No one thought we’d compete with Notre Dame, so I think we’re just starting to take strides in the right direction.”

Peterson was named to the All-Tournament first team and guard Cornelia Fondren was named to the second team.

On Monday, the coaches voted Peterson to the All-ACC first team and All-Defensive team. Guard Brianna Butler earned second team honors and center Briana Day made it on the All-Defensive team.

Syracuse has a week until it’ll find out its postseason fate on March 14 at 7 p.m.

Published on March 7, 2016 at 2:24 pm

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