The players on the Syracuse volleyball team realize the importance of consistency. But this season, consistency has remained elusive for the Orange. Ask any player why that is, and there won’t be any excuses.

Instead, it’s just reality.

‘Every team has ups and downs, it’s a long season,’ outside hitter Hayley Todd said. ‘We’re just sort of fighting through that.’

Syracuse (21-5, 3-5 Big East) heads into a weekend with two must-win matches against Pittsburgh and West Virginia. The two wins would keep the Orange’s season alive in the Big East. Coming off a lost Midwest road trip in which it suffered two defeats at the hands of Notre Dame and DePaul, Syracuse needs to right itself for the last stretch of the season.

Now’s the time to do that.

Both the Mountaineers (14-10, 4-4) and the Panthers (10-14, 4-4) come in with even conference records, sitting in seventh and eighth places in the conference, respectively. The Orange leads the Big East with a .288 hitting percentage, while Pittsburgh sits at No. 9 at .188 and West Virginia is No. 13 at .173.

On paper, Syracuse is the better team. If the Orange can live up to those statistics on the court, getting at least one win, if not two, shouldn’t be too much of a problem. If it doesn’t, SU will be in for a tough final weekend of the season, when it would have to beat the top two teams in the Big East in Cincinnati and Louisville.

‘If we lose this weekend, it’s going to be tough,’ Orange assistant coach Carol LaMarche said. ‘Pitt and West Virginia are no pushovers, and DePaul has one win in the Big East and that’s against us. Anything can happen.’

SU hasn’t been able to put together a string of wins, instead it has tough losses that keep the Orange’s quest to remain in the top eight of the Big East a daunting task. Syracuse’s crucial victories have been mixed with untimely defeats. The consistency of winning hasn’t been there in conference play.

For the Orange, that isn’t necessarily out of the ordinary. That’s what happens when good teams beat up on each other. Any team can get a win in any match, and that team doesn’t have to be the best one on the court. But this weekend, Syracuse has to do both: Be the best team and get the two wins it needs to contend.

‘We have to keep playing defense well,’ middle blocker Lindsay McCabe said. ‘Just keep our hitting consistency, we’ve been having good kill percentages.’

SU continues to have the best overall record in the conference, but its Big East record remains the issue. The Orange now sits in 10th place in a position that is far from where it wants to be. A league record below .500 probably wouldn’t allow Syracuse to get into the top eight to make the playoffs, although there could be a shot. Albeit a long shot.

‘It has to be mathematically perfect,’ LaMarche said. ‘But you know 8-6 is definitely in, 7-7 has a good chance. We’re pushing through these next four games, and hopefully one from Louisville or Cincinnati.’

Two wins this weekend would get SU back to .500 and back to a good spot in the standings. After losses this season, the players have said that not everything came together well enough to get a win. Everything didn’t click the way it should. But as the season goes on, things better start coming together and clicking. Syracuse’s grip on its playoff ambitions loosens with every loss.

At least for SU, it knows what it needs to do to turn things around.

‘We just have to finish the plays,’ McCabe said. ‘Last weekend we dug a lot of balls up, had good sets and just struggled to end the play with a kill. That definitely has to be our focus.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on October 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman