Syracuse Volleyball completes the Big Apple Tournament with a 3-1 win despite late push from Manhattan
By Josh Solomon | @JoshSolo29
Photo Credit: CUSE.COM
New York City, N.Y. – Seven of the final ten points in the third set were scored by Manhattan College against Syracuse. At the time, SU was up two sets to nothing but it seemed that the momentum was starting to shift sides. Up to that point, the Orange had dominated with a 25-14 victory in the first set followed by a 25-20 in the second. It was all a matter of Syracuse’s resilience playing three matches in two days, can they close the game out? That is exactly what the squad did.
Both teams started the fourth set with attacking errors, however, it was after a four-point run in the middle of the set that Syracuse pulled ahead. The Orange and Jaspers were knotted up at 12s before SU forced Manhattan Head Coach Mauro Miletic to call a timeout when his team went down 15-12. Out of that timeout, the ‘Cuse continued applying pressure scoring four of the next six points before another Manhattan College timeout.
After that timeout though, Syracuse’s run was put to a halt. The Jaspers went on a match-point run scoring six in a row before the Orange put the game to an end. Middle blocker Zharia Harris-Waddy finished the game with a powerful fifth kill. Syracuse (6-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) was able to take care of business winning 3-1 against Manhattan College (0-6, 0-0 MAAC), overcoming a rough third set and end of the fourth.
Outside hitter Ava Palm continued her stellar early start to the season with 14 kills. The graduate student totaled 44 kills throughout the three-game tournament. In addition, outside hitter Skylar George set a career-high with 13 kills, 11 digs and five aces. George also had an impressive weekend totaling 37 kills in three games.
Syracuse remains undefeated after two weekend tournaments to start its season. The ‘Cuse return to play next weekend for a tournament at Siena College. SU plays a game on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The first of those is against the host team on Thursday at 5:30.
