Orange Volleyball rebounds with five-set win over Notre Dame

Syracuse Orange Women’s Volleyball completed the reverse sweep in a five-set win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Sunday after losing in straight sets to No. 4 Louisville Cardinals on Friday night.

Key performances from Sunday

Sophomore Zhaira Harris-Waddy had a team-high 17 kills and finished with a hitting percentage of .400 against Notre Dame. Harris-Waddy had one solo block and added ten block assists.

Redshirt Freshman Skyler George finished with 15 kills with a hitting percentage of .293.

Graduate Transfer Ava Palm had 14 kills with a hitting percentage of .154. Palm had two solo blocks and four block assists.

Graduate Transfer Sara Wasiakowska had nine kills and a .208 hitting percentage to go along with six block assists.

Graduate Transfer Sydney Moore entered the match after set one.  Moore had two solo blocks, three block assists, and had three kills. Moore had a hitting percentage of .333.

Game review by Ziskin

The Orange opened the 1st set on a 3-0 run before the Fighting Irish went on back-to-back 3-0 runs of their own that were separated by an attack error.

Notre Dame went on two additional 3-0 runs before taking a 23-15 lead. Syracuse went on a 3-0 run and a 2-0 run that included two kills by Palm before falling 25-20.

The Fighting Irish doubled up the Orange 6-3 at the start of set two. The Orange clawed their way back and trailed 21-20 late in the set.

Notre Dame would go on a 4-1 run to take a 2-0 lead in the match.

The Fighting Irish opened set three on fire before the Orange went on a 4-0 run that included a solo block and block assist by Harris-Waddy.

Syracuse trailed 10-7 before a 4-0 run that included a solo block and a kill by Moore.

Harris-Waddy and Wasiakowska combined for five kills to take set three 25-22.

Notre Dame went on a 3-0 run to open Set Four before Syracuse answered back with a 3-0 run and a 4-0 run.

Syracuse won a tightly contested 4th set 25-22 behind two late kills by Palm.

The Orange went on two 3-0 runs into Set Five. George had three kills in the set.

Harris-Waddy had a service ace, a kill, a solo block and two block assists.

Palm had two kills, a solo block, and a block assist. Sierzant had the final kill to win it 15-12.

Game overview by Burgess

Syracuse Volleyball entered Friday night with steep chances against a dominant No. 4 Louisville team that entered the match with a sterling 20-3 record. The Orange, meanwhile, were looking to add to their lone ACC win against Virginia Tech earlier this month. 

Ultimately, the Orange dropped the contest in straight sets. The 8th time they’ve lost in that fashion this year. 

Key performances from Friday

Each of the early set wins were powered by late Louisville runs, while the Cuse hung tough with the Cards in the early part of set one and two. 

“We knew to slow down their offense, we had to take them out of the system.” Syracuse Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said. “And even out of the system, they’re pretty good, but we wanted to make sure we attack the outsides, especially (Charitie Luper), to create some out-of-system play for us,”

H3 Section Header

Middle Zharia Harris-Waddy had a pair of kills to get the Cuse in front 3-2 at the start of the second set. But immediately ceded three straight Louisville points to give away the lead. After that, it was a game of catch-up for a while. At one point, one that the Cuse was hanging in. 

A late Ava Palm kill and Veronica Searzant block brought SU back into the set. But the Cardinals finished it off 25-18, capitalizing on the small lead it had maintained after its early comeback. 

In the third and final set, after tying things 2-2. Louisville took over, showcasing the top five attacks in the country that came advertised. They scored 10 of the next 13 points and extended the lead to 12-5. From there, SU was forced to chase its way back.

Palm and Skylar George led the Orange in kills with eight a piece, George also picked up three service aces along the way. 

“I think we have gotten to a point where we do some really good things…but we need to be more consistent with that, that’s the difference. I think the more we play (ranked) teams, the more we understand that.” Coach Bake said. 

Many would say that the ACC is the premier Volleyball conference in the country, Syracuse has now faced three top-five teams this year with No. 1 Pitt, No. 5 Stanford, and now No. 4 Louisville. 

“We won one ACC game so far against Virginia Tech and went to five sets, and the results in the fifth set was 16-14, that kind of shows you how tight this ACC conference is and how competitive it is,” Bake said of the challenge of the conference schedule. 

Syracuse turns its attention to Notre Dame on Sunday afternoon.