Observations from SU’s 1st 3 tournaments of the season

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On Sep. 21, Syracuse will compete in its first Atlantic Coast Conference matchup at home against Boston College. After a 4-5 start through three non-conference tournaments, the Orange enter ACC play after losing two of three games of the Syracuse Tournament.

With a depleted squad from a year ago — SU returned just six players — the Orange will take on tougher conference opponents.

Here are three observations of SU before ACC play begins: 

Shemanova and Lokhmanchuk carrying the attack

Polina Shemanova and Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk have been playing alongside each other as outside hitters since 2019. And every year, their combined offensive presence has grown. Through nine games, the duo have combined for 247 kills, accounting for 57% of the team’s total.

On Sept. 1 against Kansas State at the UCF Challenge, Shemanova became the fifth Syracuse player to reach 1,500 career kills.

During most games this season, either Shemanova or Lokhmanchuk have led the team in kills and points, while the other is usually a close second.

Against Wofford, Lokhmanchuk finished with 24 points, responsible for just around 30% of the team’s total. And in the loss to Kansas State, Lokhmanchuk still ended the contest with a season-high 26 points, and complemented Shemanova to have 44 of SU’s 69 points against the Wildcats.

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“Viktoriia’s a great hitter, and we really benefit from that,”  Shemanova said of Lokhmanchuk.

Despite a 1-2 record at the Orange’s home tournament, Shemanova still put on an offensive clinic. Since surpassing the 1,500 mark, the graduate student has leapfrogged up to third on the all-time career kills list. In Syracuse’s 3-1 win over Hofstra, she notched her 1,550th kill early in the second set.

Both newcomers and returners fulfill expectations

When Bre Walp transferred to Syracuse from North Florida, she came in as a middle-blocker who finished in the top 10 nationally for blocks last season. And she’s continued her blocking success at SU.

Through nine games, Walp has led the Orange in blocks six times, totaling 33 blocks. She accounts for almost half of the team’s total blocks (71). Walp notched her season-high of seven at the Syracuse Invitational against Army.

While the 6-foot-2 Walp dominates the net, 5-foot-9 Alyssa Bert has been consistently covering the rest of the SU half. The libero transferred to Syracuse from Colorado State. During her time at CSU, the team won the Mountain West regular-season title in 2019 before picking up a co-season title during Bert’s senior year. Now she is SU’s primary source for digs. Through nine games, Bert’s 124 digs are a team-high, and ranks 150th nationally.

“She’s probably one of our most consistent players,” Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said of Bert.

Another attacking contributor is Naomi Franco. Last season, Franco set her career high with 13 kills against Buffalo. Franco recorded four more double-digit kill games in 2021, including 14 against Miami. Against North Florida, the right-side hitter had 13 kills and has recorded double-digit kills in three games this year.

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“We’re on Naomi all the time about being comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Ganesharatnam said. “We feel like that’s the only way you can improve. That’s one of the reasons why the improvement happened.” 

After redshirting her freshman year, Raina Hughes has also excelled during the young season. Listed initially as a middle blocker before undergoing a position change, Hughes recorded 10 kills in her first career game against Campbell. 

Even when Hughes isn’t spiking the ball, she’s blocking at the net. Throughout the Syracuse Invitational, Hughes placed in the top three in blocks for SU during every game and finished with a game-high four blocks against Yale.

“They can be unstoppable players for us from an offensive standpoint but also from a blocking standpoint,” Ganesharatnam said of Franco and Hughes. “They just need to understand how great they are and how great they can become.”

Too many unforced errors

In SU’s loss to Kansas State, it allowed 11 service aces compared to three of its own. And although the two teams matched up pretty evenly in almost every other category, receiving errors cost the Orange the game. The following day, Syracuse was again outplayed on the service, handing 10 points to UCF in a lopsided, straight-set victory for the Golden Knights. 

Attacking errors have also been at the forefront of losses, too. In Syracuse’s loss to Charlotte, the Orange finished with 26 attacking errors while the 49ers had 17. Against UCF, Shemanova committed eight errors, 44% of her team’s total and only three shy of the Golden Knights’ team total.