McCabe Breaks Record In Loss To BC

Sunday, October 5

Chestnut Hill, MA

12 pm

Syracuse University

7-8, 0-4ACC

Boston College

7-7, 2-1ACC

Syracuse

10/5/2014 9:34:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Lindsay McCabe owns the most block assists recorded by a student-athlete in SU history

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Orange lost its fourth straight match on Sunday afternoon against Boston College. The Eagles (7-7, 2-1 ACC) slighted Syracuse (7-9, 0-4 ACC) in three sets, 25-18, 25-22 and 30-28.

Take Your Seat On The Throne
Redshirt senior, Lindsay McCabe captured one of the SU records she's been chasing this season. With her seven block assists against the Eagles she now has 461 assisted blocks in her career, eclipsing the former Syracuse program record of 458 held by Sarah Morton.

Inside The 3-0 Loss
At a glance, the story of the match seems to be hitting percentage. Boston College out hit the Orange .375 to .154 in the first and .282 to .111 in the second. In the third and final set, Syracuse gave Boston College its best shot, hitting .342 and committing just two attack errors while the Eagles hit .180 and committed 10, but were able to hold on to with the match.

However, even with the differential in hitting percentage, this contest was tremendously close throughout as the score was tied 24 times and there were 10 lead changes.

Despite the hitting percentages, the first set began close. With the score at 13-10 in favor of the Eagles, BC charged ahead with a 5-2 run to give itself some distance. From there, the match remained pretty even as the teams exchanged points until SU fell 25-18.

The match was closer in the second set as the Orange refused to give Boston College any distance in the set. The two teams went point-for-point all the way until the score was tied at 22. Julia Topor gave the Eagles the lead with a kill, and back-to-back hitting errors by the Orange awarded BC the set, 25-22.

The final stanza was virtually identical to the previous two as both teams were evenly matched and SU refused to accept give Boston College any space on the scoreboard. Each team battled through 10 tie scores and five lead changes in the set until BC put together one final 3-0 run to defeat the Orange.

Topor tied the match up at 28 with a kill allowing Courtney Castle, a defensive specialist who is ranked fifth in the conference in aces, to serve. Castle's first serve resulted in an ace, giving the Eagles the lead and Katty Workman made the game-winning kill on the ensuing play, taking the set, 30-28.

A Look At The Box Score
Despite the loss, there are a few encouraging takeaways from the match against Boston College on the attacking side of play. Valeriya Shaipova, who has been fighting back from a season ending injury in 2013, recorded a season high 13 kills and hit .290 against the Eagles. The 13 kills was the first time this season she's recorded double-digit kills. She credited with two block assists as well.

Also, there's no doubt Leah Levert has been a key contributor blocking for the Orange. That proved true again against the Eagles as she assisted on five blocks. However, the freshman has made strides in the last few weeks in practice on her hitting and fans in the Boston area caught a glimpse of that Sunday afternoon. Levert tied a career high three kills and was effective, recording no errors and hitting .750.

Freshman setter, Lucie Guttakovskaia saw a great deal of playing time in the match and played very similarly to teammate Gosia Wlaszczuk. She entered the game in the second set and recorded 17 assists and hit .500 with three kills on six attempts.

The Boston College defense made it difficult for SU's leading hitters as Silvi Uattara and Monika Salkute were held in the single digits in kills. Salkute led the duo with eight as Uattara recorded five.

McCabe led the way on the net with her seven block assists and two kills. Uattara had a solo block and matched Levert with five block assists. Guttakovskaia was also in on the block as the tallest setter in the ACC picked up three block assists. As a team, the Orange recorded 13.5 total blocks. The total was 12.5 more than Boston College.

Belle Sand was SU's starting libero and recorded a team best nine digs. Defensive specialists, Melina Violas, Dana Crispi and Alyssa Anderson all saw game action as well in the back row.

Boston College's Big Three
Katty Workman, Sol Calvete and Julia Topor all found success against the Orange. The three Eagles each scored in double digits and made up 42 of BC's 54 kills in the match. Topor led the group with 15 kills, Workman had 14 and Calvete finished with 13.

The next highest scorer was Brittany Pavich, who when attacking was effective as she hit .444 and recorded six kills on nine tries with two errors. Kellie Barnum was the brains of the offense as she connected with hitters 39 times for assists.

Home Sweet Home
This weekend the Orange will have the comfort of competing on its home court with the first home ACC match of the season set for 7:00 PM on Friday against Miami. 'Cuse will conclude the weekend with a match against Pittsburgh on Sunday at 1:00 PM.