Orange volleyball ends 3-game losing skid, defeats West Virginia
Photo/Mark Nash
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West Virginia wasn’t going down without a fight. But for the first time in three games, neither was Syracuse. Because of the Orange’s desperation, it prevailed 3-2 against the Mountaineers following a loss of the same score just two days earlier against Pittsburgh.
‘We’re desperate for all the games this weekend, but after a loss you’re going to be more desperate for a win,’ senior Hayley Todd said.
Against the Panthers Friday, the Syracuse volleyball team started strong but ultimately fell flat, losing its third straight game, 3-2. But on Sunday afternoon in the Women’s Building, SU (22-6, 4-6) topped a scrappy West Virginia squad with some scrappiness of its own.
From the start, it was clear the Mountaineers (14-12, 4-6) would be a tough test for the Orange. West Virginia came in with three straight losses of its own, but Syracuse played with just as much, if not more, desperation. SU was coming off of a heartbreaking five-set loss to Pitt that put the team in danger of missing the Big East tournament.
The game against West Virginia was a must-win.
‘Obviously we wanted it bad,’ said sophomore Samantha Hinz, who finished with nine kills. ‘We had come off a few losses.’
But the win was not an easy one. Not against a West Virginia team that seemed to have the game in hand multiple times throughout the match.
The Mountaineers took the first set 25-18 and seemed well on their way to handing Syracuse another crushing Big East loss. But SU fought back with a dominating second set, besting West Virginia 25-17 to tie up the match. Up 15-12, Lindsay McCabe had a kill to make it 16-12 and start a 4-0 run.
The third set was closer, but the Orange took it, 25-21. Much of it was back and forth. Mindy Stanislovaitis led the way, finishing with a team-high 13 kills in the match.
SU seemed to have finally figured out how to beat the pesky Mountaineers. All it needed was another win in the fourth set. But the Orange got down early and could not claw its way back, as West Virginia tied up the match 2-2 with a 25-21 win.
And with that came the fifth and final set. The one that would decide the match and set the tone for the rest of SU’s season.
Against Pitt, the Orange couldn’t close the deal. Syracuse was unable to win the fifth set. The consistency just wasn’t there. But versus the Mountaineers, SU pulled off the win.
‘We had some weird plays, but they were good,’ Hinz said. ‘We just had to be on our toes at all times to try to just be ready for them for whatever they put over.’
Despite falling into a quick 0-3 hole, the Orange rebounded to take an 11-6 lead, causing West Virginia to call a timeout. But it would not matter. Outside hitter Noemie Lefebvre had a kill down the stretch to make it 14-9, and SU won the last set 15-10.
The Orange finally did it. SU’s desperation for a win came through, and it pulled off the victory in a tough five-set game. West Virginia wasn’t going to beat SU like Pitt did 48 hours earlier.
‘We just had to stay confident, believe that we were going to win. Just not worry about their side and just keep playing our offense,’ Hinz said.
SU will have to continue to play that way as it heads into the final stretch of Big East games. The team will have little room for any losses going forward.
‘If we do what we need to do on our side, then we’ll beat any team on the other side,’ assistant coach Carol LaMarche said. ‘They were pumped and ready to go. They wanted to win.’