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In Atlantic Coast Conference play, Syracuse has been down two sets to none nine times. Eight out of the nine times, a subsequent sweep followed. Friday against No. 4 Louisville, the Cardinals swept the Orange. Sunday, Syracuse faced a familiar situation. Back-to-back set wins for Notre Dame, which looked to break a nine-game losing streak, put the Fighting Irish in control.
However, in the third set, Syracuse came alive and ready to not repeat recent history.
“It’s not by accident that we were able to stay in this game and come back,” SU head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said.
Following the third set win, Syracuse (14-12, 2-12 ACC) turned the match on its head. The Orange came from behind to defeat Notre Dame (9-14, 2-12), avoiding their ninth straight-set ACC loss and earning its first reverse sweep win since September 2022 against Wake Forest.
In the first set, Syracuse opened up to a 4-1 lead, highlighted by kills from Ava Palm and Zharia Harris-Waddy. Palm (14) and Harris-Waddy (17) both recorded 10+ kills in the winning effort. Skylar George also put up 15 kills at a personal ACC-best .293 hitting percentage, marking the second time in ACC play that the Orange have had three players with over 10 kills.
“We’re creating better opportunities,” Ganesharatnam said. “We’re passing the ball consistently better. Obviously, it’s not just about creating opportunities. It’s also executing too. That shows the progression of the players that they are getting better because of the execution.”
Quickly after, Notre Dame went on a 6-1 run to take the lead at 7-5. From then on, the Orange and Fighting Irish traded the next eight points between each other, with the score at 11-9. Following a Notre Dame 4-1 run, Ganesharatnam called a timeout to stop the bleeding.
The timeout didn’t stop Notre Dame’s momentum, as it extended the lead to 19-12.
An attack error by Phyona Schrader, who led the Fighting Irish in kills (17) and assists (20), shortened the lead to four. But, a joint block by Schrader and Mallory Bohl was enough to give Notre Dame a 25-20 first-set victory.
In the second set, the Orange never led. A George kill cut Notre Dame’s lead to 6-4. After that, the two sides traded points, until back-to-back kills from Bohl and Lucy Trump took it to 11-8. Trump scored 13 kills in the match, while Bohl scored nine.
The two sides continued to trade points, until kills from Trump and Ella Sandt gave the Fighting Irish a 19-15 lead. From there, the Fighting Irish held onto their advantage, winning the set with a service ace from Avery Ross, who tallied three service aces and 12 kills.
“The first two sets weren’t bad, but they just had a lead on us the whole time,” Syracuse’s Ashlee Gnau said.
The start of the third set saw Notre Dame firmly in control with a 4-0 lead. Blocks from Veronica Sierzant and a joint-block from Sierzant and Harris-Waddy, along with a kill from Harris-Waddy and an ace from Greta Schlichter to tie it at 4-4.
Syracuse produced its biggest block total of the season (19) compared to Notre Dame’s three. Even though the blocks were rolling in, Syracuse struggled with defending the open area in the middle of the court. A tactical switch by Ganesharatnam to always have someone behind the two blockers to pick up balls that might go through the blockers helped fix that.
“We constantly had to work on the timing,” Ganesharatnam said. “The blockers were doing a good job taking the feedback, making those adjustments and improving consistently throughout the match. We did a really good job with our block and then forming a defense based on that.”
The game remained neck-and-neck throughout the third set. In the third set, the score was tied eight different times and the lead changed on five occasions. A block from Sydney Moore, followed by a kill from the Cornell transfer tied the game at 10-10. A kill from Sara Wasiakowska put the Orange back in front and forced a Notre Dame timeout.
A Grace Langer attacking error put the match at 14-12 in favor of SU. A kill from Trump gave Notre Dame a 16-15 lead, which was followed by a 4-0 SU run.
Back-to-back Harris-Waddy kills opened up a 22-19 lead. Two kills in a row from Ross cut the lead to two. After Syracuse and Notre Dame exchanged kills, a Wasiakowska kill won the set at 25-22, bringing new life to Syracuse.
“I didn’t want anything to hit the floor,” Gnau said. “I know Greta, Nikki (Shimao), Skylar, Ava, no one wanted anything to hit the floor. I know the block didn’t want anything to get through. It’s just about the people around you. Especially when we’re high in energy and want to win so bad, I feel like that really affects (the game).”
Once Harris-Waddy registered a kill to tie the game at four and George followed with a kill to give Syracuse a one-point lead at 5-4, the Orange held the lead for most of the fourth set. While SU gave up an 11-6 run, it cruised past the Fighting Irish for the rest of the set, setting up a match-deciding fifth set.
Through the first half of the fifth set, the Orange held an 8-7 lead when the teams switched sides. After a media timeout, a Palm ace opened a three-point lead, SU’s biggest lead of the fifth set.
A Trump kill cut it down to two, but was immediately followed by a joint block by Moore and Wasiakowska. George and Ross then exchanged kills to make it 14-11. A Schrader kill kept Notre Dame alive, but a kill from Sierzant sealed Syracuse’s victory.
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