The Syracuse volleyball team entered its first two Big East matches last weekend with newfound focus.

Unfortunately for SU, St. John’s had a similar idea.

Syracuse lost to St. John’s on Friday and Connecticut on Sunday, but beat Marist on Saturday.

The Orangewomen (10-6) won just one game against the Red Storm and Huskies, and couldn’t come back as easily as they had against less-skilled competition.

‘We played well the game we won (against St. John’s),’ said freshman Kathryn Dercher, who had 44 assists at setter because of an injury to junior Michaela Skelly that limited her to back-row action. ‘We were the stronger team, but we took them for granted. We didn’t push all the way through.’

Syracuse showed up on Friday focused for the conference opener but was overpowered for most of the match by the jump serves and relentless attack of the Red Storm’s Sarah McCrary and Jackie Ahlers.

At 5-foot-8, McCrary is several inches smaller than most outside hitters, but she showed tremendous jumping ability while picking up a team-high 20 kills.

The match’s first three games finished 30-27, with St. John’s winning the first and third. In the second game, the Orangewomen were in control. Sophomore outside hitter Morgan Jones picked up many of her season-high 17 kills at crucial moments during the game, and with a strong defensive effort, Syracuse evened the match, 1-1.

The third game was close, but with several missed serves and opportunities on attack, the Orangewomen couldn’t finish off the Red Storm.

St. John’s rode the momentum to a 30-20 win in the final game.

‘The momentum,” Dercher said, “was definitely switched (after the third game).”

SU assistant coach Alexis Dankulic said that while the Orangewomen didn’t lack effort, certain aspects of their game let them down against the Red Storm.

‘We made a couple service errors that really hurt the team,’ Dankulic said. ‘Our passing wasn’t as good as it usually is, and we struggled in the middle.

‘We were evenly matched, and we were hoping that middle-wise we would be able to take over.’

Sunday against Connecticut, Syracuse went down early in the first game and was never able to take a consistent lead for the rest of the match. While Connecticut hit the ball well, picking up a .250 attack percentage, Syracuse countered with only a .155 average.

After losing the first game, Skelly came back in at setter, and Syracuse seemed to pick up momentum. Tremendous late-game defense by libero Christen Casey and timely kills by Kristen Conway and Jones kept the Orangewomen in the game, but eventually the combination of missed serves and multiple errors gave the Huskies control of the match, which they swept.

Even with the 0-2 Big East start, SU head coach Jing Pu was pleased with his team’s effort this weekend and is looking forward to the rest of the conference season.

‘We are a young team, and we played at a good intensity level,’ Pu said. ‘If we can stabilize certain areas, we are pretty strong.”

Published on September 29, 2002 at 12:00 pm