Syracuse Volleyball’s 2024 season comes to an end

By Josh Solomon | @JoshSolo29

After ending with a 2-26 record last season, Syracuse Volleyball really could only go up and honestly, that’s exactly what happened.

Coming into his third season as head coach of the Orange, Bakeer Ganesharatnam went to the transfer portal and brought in new talent to help a younger squad of returning players. This included a few graduate students: Ava Palm, Anastasiia Nikolnikova, Sydney Moore, Nikki Shimao, and Elizabeth Schuster. Most of these players made a huge impact on the teams’ success. 

Starting with outside hitter, Ava Palm. The grad student who transferred after playing at CSU Bakersfield the previous three years was dominant from the beginning. Palm led the ‘Cuse with 371 kills and 263 digs. Alongside her, Nikolnikova led the squad in blocks with 99 on the year and Moore distributed 94 blocks. 

For Shimao and Schuster, their time on the court was altered by injuries. To begin the season, both grad students were taken out of action. After injuring her lower body in the very first match of the season against NJIT, Schuster was out of play until the ACC schedule began. In just Syracuse’s second match of ACC play, the Oregon State transfer stepped back onto the court, but her return only lasted a few minutes. After the match, Coach Bake stated that Schuster was trying to play on a torn ACL and she would be out for the rest of the season. It was the opposite though for Shimao, the Temple transfer returned about halfway through the season and finished strong at the libero position. 

Now, along with the grad transfers was a redshirt freshman who joined the squad, Skylar George. After not playing a single point in Utah during her true freshman season, the outside hitter decided to head east and play for the ‘Cuse. George had the second most kills for the Orange this season (258) and looks very promising on the court for years to come at SU. 

In terms of season trajectory, Syracuse matched its win total of last season on just day one with two wins. That momentum carried throughout all of non-conference play and the Orange were undefeated (12-0) heading into the ACC portion of the schedule. SU was one of just a handful of teams without a loss in the NCAA to this point. 

As mentioned during the entire season by Orange head coach, Bakeer Ganesharatnam, there are many strong teams in the conference. This was shown especially for the ‘Cuse against ACC opponents going a bleak 3-17. However, Syracuse still picked up its first ACC win in nearly two years against Virginia Tech at the end of October. SU later beat VT again to end the season. Along with those two wins, the Orange picked up a reverse sweep against Notre Dame. 

All in all, the Orange season was a success. It was a much brighter start to the season and an overall finish in ACC play despite a lackluster record against conference opponents. If you look back to last year, SU wasn’t even victorious in a single ACC game. With many grad students who helped shape this year’s team departing it seems like coach Ganesharatanam has more research and signings to make in the transfer portal. But for the best season since 2021, Syracuse ends 15-17 overall and 3-17 against ACC opponents.