Syracuse falls 3-0 to Boston College in 8th consecutive straight-set loss
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With one point left to clinch a sweep, Boston College’s Katrina Jensen rose up after being set. She hit the ball over the net and off Greta Schlichter’s hands before it found the floor, sealing the victory for BC.
Syracuse (2-21, 0-13 Atlantic Coast Conference) got swept by Boston College (15-12, 4-9 ACC) on Wednesday in its seventh consecutive straight-set loss. With just five conference matches remaining, SU is running out of chances to snag its first ACC win.
Jensen’s game-ending kill was just one of five points that BC’s top hitter ended in the final frame. The point that set up that match point was also killed by Jensen. After a back-and-forth stretch in the middle of the set, Jensen killed a point to make the score 19-17 in favor of the Eagles. From there, the Orange won just one point, coming on a service error from Halle Schroder.
In the third set, Syracuse built up an 11-7 lead after some sloppy play by the Eagles along with a strong performance from SU’s Laila Smith. The junior middle has emerged late in the season since returning from a concussion. While she only recorded four kills today, she registered a team-best .300 hitting percentage, bringing her mark for the season up to .268.
However, Boston College’s fast-paced offense proved too much as the Eagles had sixteen kills in the third set. On Monday, Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said that BC’s strategy could prove difficult for the Orange to compete against.
“They speed up the sets to the outside and make it very hard for blockers to get to the position to stop that,” Ganesharatnam said. “They speed up the sets with the setting, and then the attackers connect much faster.”
Jensen and Schroder, along with Alayna Crabtree, provide a talented outside trio for the Eagles. They dominated SU, recording a combined 26 kills on a .358 hitting percentage. The Eagles entered the match second in the ACC in blocks per set, but the blocking took a backseat to the efficiency of the offense.
Ganesharatnam has put a major emphasis on trying to take teams out of their offensive systems with aggressive serving, and while the Orange did that today, it didn’t seem to matter. Syracuse did have five aces, including a season-high of two from defensive specialist Melina Brooking. But it also committed seven service errors. Additionally, Boston College’s top two setters, Sophia Lambros and Jane Petrie, were effective distributors all night, running the offense despite the systemic breakdowns.
In the second set, Boston College pulled away from the start. Lambros opened the frame by acing the Orange, and back-to-back errors from SU put it behind 3-0. Boston College led by as many as twelve points during the second frame.
Syracuse was extremely error-prone in the second set. The Orange handed the Eagles fourteen points in the second set alone through attack errors (12) and service errors (two). Five different Orange players recorded multiple errors in the set. Boston College only needed eight kills to cruise to a 25-14 win.
Raina Hughes killed back-to-back points to give the Orange a 14-13 lead in the opening set. Those were two of her season-high six kills on the night, as her role continues to increase in her return from injury. But Syracuse couldn’t capitalize off of the momentum that the redshirt sophomore provided.
Veronica Sierzant had four kills within the first 24 points, which the teams split, but she didn’t muster any in the 19 final points of the set. Sierzant finished the match with eight kills, leading the team, while also committing six of SU’s 22 attacking errors.
Boston College pulled away late in the first set, similar to its final set victory. After Hughes’ kills, Schroder had two kills, putting the Eagles ahead 16-14. BC expanded its lead to seven, winning the opening set by the same 25-18 score as the final set.
