Volleyball: The Orange Comes Out Victorious

Photos and story by Kelsey Snider

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – You could feel the there was a change in energy in the gym as Syracuse was getting ready for their second match in the Syracuse Tournament against the Siena Saints. By the way they were holding themselves, you could tell that the Orange were focused and ready to get that first win of the season.

The Orange achieved their first victory of the season in a hard fought four set battle with the Saints (25 – 23, 25 – 16, 14 – 25, 31 – 29).

Sets one and two:

Syracuse came out strong in the first two sets with blocking being a key factor to their success. By the second set, the Orange out blocked the Saints eight blocks to zero with middle blocker Amber Witherspoon leading the Orange with 5 block assists.

Another key to the early success of the Orange was their serve receive. Syracuse could run an effective offense using all their hitters. Syracuse out hit Siena in both sets hitting .232 compared to Siena’s .014.

Set three:

Coming into set three, the Orange didn’t start as strong and fell behind the Saints early in the set. Their passing started to break down and therefore running a composed offense was difficult. The Orange made more attacking mistakes and were out hit by the Saints, who were hitting .429 compared to the Orange hitting .062.

However, Syracuse’s blocking continued to dominate the game out blocking Siena 10 blocks to 4.

“I think that it gave us a chance to reevaluate ourselves and say what happened this isn’t ok, but were going to fix it right now, and we’re going to talk about it later and we’re going to move on,” freshman outside hitter Mackenzie Weaver said regarding going into the fourth set.

Set four:

Syracuse was determined to win their first match of the season and that showed in the grueling fourth set.

“It came to a realization that we need to win,” Weaver said. “We need to win this weekend. And if it’s going to be ugly, it’s going to be ugly, but we have to get it done.”

With a rough start to the set, the Orange regained composure in the middle of the set and started to fight back and compete with the Saints. Middle blockers Leah Levert and Amber Witherspoon played major roles for the Orange leading to a fourth set victory. Levert got five kills, and Witherspoon attained 3 blocks making the team total to 15 blocks for the entire match.

Coming up next:

The Orange will play the Penn State Nittany Lions tonight at 7pm. The Nittany Lions are ranked 10^th in RPI.

“We’re going to have to see what they can do, reevaluate what we can do in our system and try to find holes in theirs,” Weaver said.

The Orange will stick around and watch Penn State play Hofstra to prepare for tonight’s match.