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Duke’s Sydney Yap popped the ball into the air and hit a left-handed service into Syracuse territory. Her effort made a beeline toward SU’s Greta Schlichter who judged it perfectly.

At the last second, Schlichter dodged to her right, letting Yap’s shot sail out of bounds. Schlichter pumped her fist and Syracuse’s squad rejoiced despite the 12-point score differential in the third and final set.

But trailing 21-9, Syracuse (2-16, 0-8 Atlantic Coast Conference) failed to tack on another point in its straight set loss to Duke (12-7, 3-5 ACC) on Saturday. Utilizing near-spotless offensive sets and a suffocating defense at the net, the visiting Blue Devils held the Orange to a 0.011 kill percentage, forcing them to commit 24 errors.

“We have to be patient with this group for them to keep growing,” SU head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said. “We’re not there yet, and it shows us how much work we have ahead of us.”

For the opening five points of the first set, both teams alternated kills. Yet, after Veronica Sierzant committed an attacking error to give Duke a 3-2 edge, the game slipped away. The Blue Devils extended their lead to 10-6 before an Emma Worthington service error. However, the Orange failed to capitalize, giving up a kill to Lizzie Fleming. It seemed that after every Duke error, Syracuse couldn’t gain back lost ground.

Then, Duke went on an 8-0 run, staying within its system as Syracuse’s unforced mistakes started to beat itself. Ganesharatnam said the Orange entered the contest with an efficient gameplan but couldn’t execute. SU tallied ten attack errors and just nine kills in the first set while the Blue Devils registered two attacking errors. A Gracie Johnson kill along the left sideline gave Duke a one set lead.

“Whenever you have the opportunity to have a balanced offense, it’s very hard to defend that.” Ganesharatnam said.

The Blue Devils’ offensive onslaught continued in the second set. Outside hitter Kerry Keefe led the way with four points, including back-to-back kills, giving Duke a 6-5 lead. Keefe finished with a team-high eight kills on the afternoon.

Laila Smith and Zharia Harris-Waddy served as the only two bright spots for the Orange offense. In the beginning of the second set, Syracuse jumped out to a 5-2 lead. Harris-Waddy led the way with seven kills on the day for the Orange, while Smith had six kills on a .600 hitting percentage.

Defensively, however, Syracuse didn’t record a single block as it slumped to a 25-16 loss in the second set. The defeat marked the team’s eighth-straight lost set.

“Finding our rhythm was very difficult today,” Ganesharatnam said.

SU’s failures became more glaring in the third set. The Orange failed to communicate effectively in multiple instances, including a point in the final moments. Three surrounding Orange players watched as the ball fell to the ground, but none dove to save the possession.

In the third set, Duke didn’t commit a single attacking error, finishing the match with 40 kills to four errors for a .462 hitting percentage. Syracuse totaled just nine points in the final set. SU’s leading hitter Cherlin Antonio recorded just two kills while committing 10 attacking errors in the loss.

“A lot of her errors came because she hit to area six,” Ganesharatnam said of Antonio’s struggles.

With 10 games remaining in the regular season, Syracuse is still searching for its first ACC win in a league Ganesharatnam deems the best in the country.

“We need to make our players better.” Ganesharatnam. “We need time to invest in that process, and that’s not done in a month or two or three.”

Published on October 15, 2023 at 7:52 pm

Contact Sam: sefederm@syr.edu