Syracuse Volleyball escapes the weekend with a split
By Josh Solomon | @JoshSolo29
Heading into the weekend, Syracuse Volleyball had one of the ACC’s best and worst on tap. On Friday, SU took on number three (then 4th-ranked) Louisville before facing a struggling Notre Dame squad Sunday. SU returned home to the Women’s Building for the first time in a couple of weeks when the Orange took home their first ACC victory in nearly two years. The ‘Cuse were hoping to do more of the same.
To start the weekend, the Orange faced one of the hardest challenges of the season against third-ranked Louisville. Syracuse had lost its four ranked matchups in straight sets before Friday’s match, but did that change? Well, the Cardinals certainly showed its strengths early grabbing the first three points and an early 6-3 lead in the first set. That run continued in the middle of the set with six-straight Louisville points making it a 21-14 contest. Despite SU’s late run of three points in a row, the Cardinals held onto a 25-17 first-set win.
The second set had more of the same aspects with Louisville building a 21-14 lead before closing out the second set 25-18 and taking a 2-0 gap over Syracuse. In the third set, SU started even with U of L knotted at twos. But the Cardinals scored 10 of the next 13 points and secured a lead of seven, 12-5. After that point, the match was all but over. Louisville ended the set 25-15 and the match in three sets.
The only bright spot for the ‘Cuse were outside hitters Ava Palm and Skylar George, who each totaled eight kills in the game respectively. The Orange looked out of sorts which just can’t happen especially facing a ranked opponent and were outmatched by the Cardinals’ stars. Luckily for SU, another team that had been struggling in ACC play was Notre Dame who was next up on the docket.
Syracuse continued building off Friday’s lackluster performance filled with errors in the first set on Sunday against Notre Dame. The Orange ended the set with a 17% hitting percentage compared to the Fighting Irish’s 23%. SU did however push late in the set going on a seven to two run before ND capped the first set off with a 25-20 victory. With contributions from George in the second set, who finished with 15 kills in the match, the Orange were hanging in. It was 21-20 before Notre Dame went on a four-to-one scoring run winning the set 25-21 and going ahead two sets to nothing against Syracuse. At this point, it seemed all hope had run out for Syracuse on the weekend.
After dropping the match on Friday in straight sets against a top-five program to then seemingly on the verge of another loss in that fashion against a squad with just two wins in conference play, momentum was lost…or was it? From that point, the Orange went on a run that shocked fans on their home court. Back-to-back 25-22 set wins for the ‘Cuse put the team in a position of a winner-takes-all fifth set. And when the pressure was on the line, a returning player in sophomore Zharia Harris-Waddy stepped in to record her best career stat line. The middle blocker totaled a career-best 17 kills and 11 blocks. The double-digit stats in those categories haven’t been done in a game by a Syracuse player since 2021.
Alongside Harris-Waddy in the front row, setter Veronica Sierzant put the finishing touches on the match with a kill. Syracuse took the fifth set 15-12 and completed a 3-2 reverse sweep of Notre Dame.
With that victory, Syracuse moves to 14-12 on the season with a 2-12 record in ACC play. This second win comes at a crucial time during the final stretch of the regular season with hopes of the postseason. SU only has six matches remaining against ACC opponents with the next two on the road. The Orange head down south to take on 16th-ranked Georgia Tech on Friday and Clemson on Sunday.
