Syracuse (29-7) vs. Washington (26-10)

Sunday, 8:30 p.m., ESPN2 Why Syracuse can win: After Syracuse’s 89-67 Elite Eight victory against Tennessee last week, Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick described Orange star Alexis Peterson’s game that night: “She kind of put them on her back and said, ‘We’re not going to be defeated.’ ” Peterson had a season-high 29 points and burst into tears at midcourt before helping her team cut down the nets. She was named the Sioux Falls Regional most outstanding player. But it wasn’t just her performance that sealed Syracuse’s spot in the Final Four. Guard Brianna Butler hit three consecutive three-pointers in the fourth quarter to break things open and finished with 18 points. This, of course, was after the Orange pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament — beating No. 1 seed South Carolina in the Sweet 16. Syracuse is in a rare circumstance where its men’s and women’s teams are in the Final Four. Though Jim Boeheim is making his fifth appearance and women’s coach Quentin Hillsman is making his first, that’s no reason to doubt them. Why Washington can win: Most of, if not all, the attention in women’s basketball has been placed on Connecticut. But these Huskies deserve some, too. On the way to their first Final Four, No. 7 seed Washington had to beat No. 2 Maryland, No. 3 Kentucky (in Lexington, by the way) and No. 4 Stanford. The games weren’t that close, either. They have the fourth-leading scorer in the country in junior guard Kelsey Plum, and Chantel Osahor was named the Lexington Regional’s most outstanding player after scoring a careerhigh 24 points against Stanford — and at 6-2, this center can dunk. Plus this team has guts — junior forward Katie Collier beat cancer and recovered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament, while coach Mike Neighbors once had a heart attack. This group is by no means one that’s going to make it this far and lie down. They’re certainly battletested.