Mackenzie Weaver shouted out “Believe in each other!” as she stared at her Syracuse teammates. The Orange trailed Connecticut by two points early in the fourth set already trailing in the match, two sets to one.

But Weaver’s plea went unanswered.

When UConn held match point later in the set, SU players slumped their shoulders as a game of back-and-forth leads culminated in the final straw that broke the Orange.

“To go and start hitting our head on the wall just because we lost and pulling our hair…but we aren’t going to learn anything like that,” SU head coach Leonid Yelin said. “We just have to learn and it’s going to be painful … as much pain as I have, I keep it inside and just got to be patient as much as I can.”

Despite both teams hanging within two points in every set, Syracuse (0-1) fell to the Huskies (1-0), 3-1, on Friday night at the Women’s Building. In its season opener, the Orange blew multiple leads. SU clawed back, but it wasn’t enough.

Throughout the course of the game, Syracuse players like Amber Witherspoon took large leaps seeking big plays that ultimately did not add up to the extra few points needed in every set the Orange lost.

“I’m going in to hit it every time,” Witherspoon said. “… I just want to make the play.”

Last year’s roster featured four seniors while this year’s includes none. There are 12 players on SU who are either freshmen or sophomores. That’s why, Yelin said, he was frantically strutting across the sideline making hand motions and passing along information to his team.

In the waning moments of each set, Yelin watched, hoping that a player would step up and demand the ball. Instead, the Orange lost control of the close battles they faced.

Sophomore Santita Ebangwese said communication wasn’t the cause of the breakdowns. Each set came down to a small margin, except the Huskies were the ones winning the key points.

When Connecticut was able to relay the ball over Syracuse’s front three, SU faced issues in consistently getting kills. The Orange relied so heavily on blocking tips from UConn’s side, its own hits weren’t able to provide an effective base to score consistently.

While SU blocked 10 more shots than the Huskies, the latter used effective passing to their advantage with a 59-46 assist advantage that gave them 15 more kills.

In close games, mistakes are magnified. Last year, Syracuse just barely missed the NCAA tournament. And while the slate is clean with 29 regular season games left to play, Yelin said he hopes his team doesn’t have a repeat performance of Friday’s loss.

“It wasn’t really about good or bad,” Yelin said, “it was about what we have to do … and telling them with what happened to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Published on August 26, 2016 at 11:13 pm

Contact Bobby: rpmannin@syr.edu