SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Orange Volleyball was back home in the Women's Building on the SU campus Friday night, hoping to make it two in a row after winning at Miami last Sunday.Instead Notre Dame (14-3, 5-0 ACC) swept Syracuse (25-16, 26-24, 25-10).
“We have to accept that that is not OK and that is not
Syracuse volleyball,” freshman outside hitter, Mackenzie Weaver said.
Set 1:
It was back and forth in the beginning of set one. Both teams seemed to be getting into their own rhythms.
The Fighting Irish came out with a fast offense creating
one-on-one situations and holes in the Orange’s block.
Syracuse which is known for its blocking seemed to get a
little shook up due the Notre Dame’s speed. Syracuse was getting blocks against
Notre Dame’s outside hitters, but didn’t have an answer for the middle and
right side attacks. Head coach Leonid Yelin said it was frustrating for the
bench and coaches because they knew the slide attack was coming.
“That really destroyed us because we knew it,” Yelin said. “We
have to keep attacking them with a serve to force them to go as much as
possible to the left side.”
Yelin said he thinks that’s when the match started to go
downhill.
Notre Dame started to pull away in the middle of the set
with a four-point run by junior setter, Caroline Holt advancing the lead to
11-6.
The Fighting Irish kept that lead the entire set, and won
25-16.
Set 2:
The beginning of set
two started a lot like the first. Both the Orange and the Fighting Irish were
neck and neck, but different from set one, it continued to be close throughout
the entire set.
The Orange had the lead at 10-9, which was the first time it
had the lead.
With a couple of point runs here and there from both teams,
the Orange and the Fighting Irish were tied at 19-19.
The Orange had three kills in a row making the score
22-19. Notre Dame came back with two kills from the outside
hitters. The score was 23-21 with the Orange leading.
At 24-22, the Orange was in winning range, but a block
error and and attack error brought the Fighting Irish back into the game with a
tied score at 24-24.
The fast offense from Notre Dame sealedl the deal with kills
from both the middle blocker right side making the score 26-24 for the win.
Set 3:
Going into set three, Notre Dame still seemed to want it and
Syracuse seemed to have a deflated morale.
“I think that we mentally broke down in the third set. I
think it comes with experience and it comes with youth,” Weaver said.
A lack of focus showed with Syracuse hitting a lot of
unforced hitting errors. The Orange had eight attack errors with six kills this
set creating the attack percentage for this set to be -.062. Notre Dame, on the
other hand, had only two errors with 15 kills making the attack percentage
.333.
Junior setter, Jalissa Trotter says a main focus of the
Orange needs to be consistency.
“I just think we need to be more consistent with everything
we’re doing. Focusing on what we have to do and just making sure we do it every
game and not just one game and skipping a few games. We just got to continue to
keep it up.”
The Fighting Irish had three 3-point runs in set three,
and for every three points Notre Dame would score, Syracuse would score one.
Notre Dame won the third set 25-10, sweeping Syracuse.
Weaver says to
win, the Orange players need to put their words into action.
“We have to learn from our mistakes,” Weaver said. “We can’t
keep talking and say we’re going to do better. We have to do better. We have to
hold ourselves to a higher standard.”
Looking ahead:
Syracuse will play the University of Louisville Cardinals (5-9,
0-4 ACC) on Sunday, Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. The match will also be Military Appreciation Day.
Yelin says the Syracuse needs to learn how to prepare for a
team and understand what it means to wear the Syracuse jersey.
“Until everyone understands how privileged it is to wear
this, we’re not going to be better,” Yelin said.
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