With the final point made and the game won, the Syracuse volleyball team seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief. It had gotten back to winning games, racking up two victories against Big East opponents. But with the two wins came two battles, and for the Orange, nothing was won easily.

SU grinded through and won the two games it needed to stay in contention in the Big East by playing, simply, well enough to win.

‘I think we played well this weekend,’ Orange assistant coach Carol LaMarche said. ‘Against UConn, we played well enough. (Sunday) was a good overall day, and UConn was a good offensive day.’

Syracuse (20-2, 3-2 Big East) fought off two teams that did everything possible to stay in each game, to win two important conference victories. SU defeated Connecticut in four sets on Friday, then went on to beat St. John’s Sunday in a three-set sweep at the Women’s Building.

In both games, every point was a battle. When SU seemed to be pulling away for an easy win, both opponents clawed their ways back, sometimes helped by untimely Orange errors. Luckily for Syracuse, neither opponent was a superior conference opponent. When errors were made, it didn’t cost the Orange a win.

‘I think that’s always a problem. Sometimes you play down to teams,’ middle blocker Samantha Hinz said. ‘I think we have shown that we can play at the level that we need to, but it’s more of a consistency thing, that we can consistently play at that level.’

Against St. John’s, Syracuse played a tighter defense and kept its errors at a minimum. The Orange didn’t give the Red Storm any easy points, forcing St. John’s to fight for each one. But against the Huskies, that wasn’t the case.

UConn came out strong, immediately getting four straight service points with the help of some Syracuse errors. Connecticut took control of the first set.

‘They got a run on us, and we went downhill from there,’ defensive specialist Sarah Hayes said. ‘It’s really important for us to stop those runs. After we lose two points, we need to get the third one.’

But after winning the first set, the tables turned on the Huskies. The holes that were in the Orange’s defense for the first set were in the Huskies’ for the rest of the game. Still, UConn never gave in completely.

In the final set, SU seemed like it was going to put it away easily, getting to a 23-13 lead. But errors and missed digs hurt the Orange again, letting the Huskies get to within three points of a tie. SU managed to give up just one more point and got kills from Hinz and Noemie Lefebvre to get the win.

The Red Storm came in just as pesky. Syracuse cruised to an easy first-set victory, but then traded points for the entire second set. St. John’s took a 12-10 lead.

SU got the lead back, but the Storm kept clawing back, never getting more than three points away from the tie. The Red Storm found ways to keep the Orange defense guessing, continuing the battle for Syracuse.

‘When they adjusted their offense, we just adjusted our defense,’ Ashley Williams said.

Syracuse seemed like it was going to win the final set easily, getting to a 19-10 lead. Once again, St. John’s made adjustments. The Red Storm got the score to 21-19, but the Orange got much-needed kills from Hayley Todd and Lindsey McCabe to get the win.

‘They definitely adjusted to us,’ Todd said. ‘That’s going to happen in a game. But we held our own and still won the game.’

SU didn’t get either of these wins without a fight. And at several points, Syracuse almost gave away the lead by struggling to adjust to the other team. But it found a way to hold off both opponents for two important conference victories.

That relief was needed for Syracuse. The struggles of late have brought questions of SU’s true ability to contend. Still, some of the toughest conference opponents lie ahead. If these two wins over the weekend did anything, it let SU know it can struggle and still get a win.

Something that could become useful as the season goes on.

‘I think in the locker room, there was a little bit of tension between everyone when we were losing,’ Hinz said. ‘I think we’re more relaxed, and even if we do lose a few more, we can come back and not feel that tension again.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

 

Published on October 10, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman