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.

Syracuse-Louisville: Not a Pretty Picture for Orange

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The Carrier Dome was abuzz with anticipation and excitement for Syracuse's second game of the season versus the #13 ranked Louisville Cardinals on Friday night. But it was the Cardinals who came away victorious, winning by a score of 62-28. Here is a look at the game in photos by Julian McKenzie. Click on any photo to start the slide show.

Recapping Louisville's Rout of Syracuse in ACC Opener

Story by Matt D'Ambrosi

Photos by Julian McKenzie

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – It was a record setting performance in more ways than one at the Carrier Dome Friday night for senior quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Louisville Cardinals.

Jackson’s 610 yards of total offense were the most in both Louisville and Atlantic Coast Conference history as the Cardinals rolled to a 62-28 victory over the Syracuse Orange in the first conference matchup of the season for both teams.

Lamar Jackson Is The Real Deal

If the records mentioned above aren’t enough to convince you, how about sixteen seconds? That’s how long it took Lamar Jackson to prove to everyone at the Carrier Dome just how lethal he actually is.

On the Cardinals’ first play from scrimmage Jackson connected with senior wide receiver James Quick for a 72-yard score in what was the first of eight Louisville touchdowns on the night.

In fact, by the end of the first quarter, Jackson had tallied 207 yards and one touchdown through the air and 108 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. After the game, Syracuse Coach Dino Babers had nothing but praise for Jackson.

“He’s an exceptional player,” Babers said. “I saw him outrun contain, where three guys were exactly where they were supposed to be and he should have got tackled for an eight-yard loss and he runs all the way to the other sideline for an eight-yard gain.”

Jackson, who had eight total touchdowns last week against Charlotte, put the cherry on top of his unbelievable performance this week with an acrobatic leap over defensive back Cordell Hudson on a touchdown run in the second quarter that had his name trending on Twitter all night.

In all, the senior from Boynton Beach, Fla. finished with a video game stat line of 411 yards passing and 199 yards rushing to go along with five total touchdowns (one passing, four rushing).

Amba Etta-Tawo Will Be Vital To Syracuse’s Offense This Season

If there was a silver lining in the blowout loss for Syracuse it was that Maryland-transfer Amba Etta-Tawo built upon his week one performance.

After catching twelve passes for 210 yards and one score in the opener against Colgate, it became clear last night that Babers will look to continue the trend of trying to get Etta-Tawo the ball – even if it means running the exact same play twice in a row.

In the second quarter Etta-Tawo ran the same fade route to the corner of the end zone on back-to-back plays, reeling the ball in on the second one to cut the score to 35-14.

When asked about what it was like facing a defense of Louisville’s caliber, Etta-Tawo said it’s more important to focus on what can be done internally.

“It comes down to doing what be do best,” Etta-Tawo said. “It’s not really the opponent we play. It’s just executing on offense, doing what we do throughout the week [and] executing things that we practice.”

Etta-Tawo, who had only 20 receptions all of last year, already has that many through two games and showed that the Colgate game was no fluke; he is capable of putting up big-time numbers against big-time teams.

The senior wide receiver finished with 103 yards receiving and two touchdowns on eight catches.

Syracuse’s Pace of Play

There was one part of the box score that Syracuse and Babers won Friday night and that was the number of plays each team ran. At the halfway mark, Syracuse had run 58 plays to Louisville’s 42. The total at the end of the game was in Syracuse’s favor as well, 92 to 83.

For Syracuse, the point here is not necessarily efficiency – at least not yet. Babers’ recipe for success is playing fast. And running 81 plays last week against Colgate and 93 plays this week is fast.

There were numerous times throughout the game, especially on the Syracuse drive that led to their first touchdown, in which it was evident that Coach Babers’ quick pace of play was getting to the Cardinals. 

In other words, there were glimpses of play that Babers will be proud of and can look to build upon moving forward.

  

Up Next

The Cardinals will play host to Florida State next week at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. As for the Orange, they’ll look to rebound during next Saturday's homecoming game against the University of South Florida.

Volleyball: Yelin Says Confidence Is The Key as Orange Falls Again

Story and photos by Kelsey Snider

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Orange Women were back at home in the Women’s Building Friday afternoon for the first day in the Syracuse Tournament, but went into the weekend still looking for their first win.

The Hofstra Pride swept Syracuse three sets to none (25-18, 25-18, 25-20) making the Orange’s overall record 0-5.  Head coach, Leonid Yelin says is not so worried about the technical side of the game, but more about the confidence his players have.

“What we have to do from now is get with more games is hopefully build confidence,” Yelin said. “Defense and serve receive definitely really struggled today, and I don’t see it’s because of our skills actually. It’s more of a level of confidence.”

In all three sets, Syracuse was close to Hofstra, but there were a couple of areas that could have been improved to possibly lead to a victory. The Orange had seven service errors, eight reception errors, and 11 block errors. All of which can be improved over time.

Hofstra led Syracuse in attack percentage, total number of assists and total number of digs.

The tournament is composed of four teams, Syracuse, Hofstra, Siena, and Penn State. Penn State beat Siena in straight sets Friday morning.

Syracuse will be back in the Women’s Building Saturday to take on Siena at 10 a.m. and Penn State at 7 p.m. Penn State plays Hofstra at 12:30 and Siena and Hofstra play at 4:30.