'Cuse Caps First ACC Season With Win

Saturday, November 30

South Bend, Ind.

2 p.m.

Syracuse University

16-16, 11-9ACC

Notre Dame

13-18, 7-13ACC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Syracuse	25	24	25	25	3
Notre Dame	16	26	17	20	1

Monika Salkute on this block for a point.

Monika Salkute posted career-highs of 12 kills and a .611 hitting percentage to go along with eight blocks

Photo by: Michael J. Okoniewski

11/30/2013 8:04:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Box Score | Season Statistics

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Syracuse closed out its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 3-1 victory at Notre Dame on Saturday, Nov. 30.

The four set win (25-16, 24-26, 25-17, 25-20) was SU's (16-16, 11-9 ACC) second of the season against Notre Dame (13-18, 7-13 ACC). The Orange also took the match in straight sets on Nov. 6. With 11 wins in the last 16 games to finish the season, Syracuse evened its overall record at .500 for the first time all year.

Sophomore Silvi Uattara posted her third double-double in the last four contests with a match-high 16 kills and 13 digs to go along with seven blocks. Junior Nicolette Serratore had 15 kills and nine digs. Also chipping in on both sides of the court was sophomore Monika Salkute with a career-high 12 kills and eight total blocks.

Redshirt junior Lindsay McCabe reached double-digit blocks for the second time this season with 10 stuffs. Her nine block assists moved her into second for a single season at SU with 138 and her 1/34 blocks per set is good for seventh in a season. For her career, McCabe now has 450 total blocks and 384 block assists, which rank fifth and fourth in school history, respectively.

Freshman Erica Handley passed out 46 assists and notched a personal-best six block assists. For the 14th time in the last 16 matches, junior Melina Violas racked up double-figure digs with 12.

The Orange matched a season-high with 19 total blocks and outhit Notre Dame .270 to .138.

Syracuse took the first set in convincing fashion, outhitting the Fighting Irish .353 to .077. The Orange used an early 11-3 stretch that put the team ahead at 12-6. Another large run of 9-2 put SU comfortably in front with its largest lead at 22-11. Uattara closed out the set with her fourth kill of the afternoon.

The second frame featured 17 ties and seven lead changes with neither team gaining an advantage of more than two throughout the entire set. Trailing 21-19, the Orange scored four of the next six points to get to match point at 24-23, but Notre Dame tallied the last three points to win 26-24.

After Notre Dame jumped out to a 5-1 lead to begin the third set, SU stormed back with 15 of 18 points to go on top 16-8 behind four kills from Salkute and three from Serratore. The Fighting Irish cut their deficit to 17-12, but a 6-2 spurt gave the Orange its largest margin at 23-14. McCabe smacked a kill and then teamed up with Handley to end the set for a Syracuse victory.

SU led from wire to wire in the fourth, but the home team kept it close throughout and didn't trail by more than three until midway into the set. With the Orange clinging to a 16-15 edge, four straight points including consecutive aces by Violas extended Syracuse's advantage to 20-15. Both squads exchanged three point runs to push the score to 23-18 and traded sideouts on the last four to give SU the set and match.

Maggie Brindock notched a double-double with 24 assists and 12 digs. Her main targets were Nicole Smith (14 kills) and Toni Alugbue (12). Andrea McHugh led all players with 17 digs.