Volleyball Wins One For The Seniors

Friday, November 28

Syracuse, NY

7 pm

Syracuse University

9-21, 2-16ACC

Virginia

17-14, 10-8ACC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Virginia	22	21	24	0
Syracuse	25	25	26	3

11/28/2014 10:45:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Syracuse turns in its best effort of the season in the season finale to defeat Virginia, 3-0

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – It was a collective effort all around as the Orange came together to win its final match of the season in three straight sets. The Syracuse offense was too much to handle for Virginia (17-14, 10-8 ACC) and the Cavaliers couldn't find an answer for the 'Cuse defense.

Coming Together On Senior Night
Four different 'Cuse players recorded seven or more kills, leading to Syracuse's .323 hitting percentage in the match. Monika Salkute and Silvi Uattara found the most success, hitting .375 and .361 respectively.

Uattara finished with a team best, 16 kills while Salkute finished with seven. Lindsay McCabe mirrored Salkute with seven kills but played a large part on defense, doing what she does best and blocking five Cavalier attacks, four of which were solo.

Stacey Smith tallied the second most kills with eight and finished with two blocks on the night, one on her own. Leah Levert played similar to McCabe, tallying four kills and swinging .600 while assisting on three blocks.

Gosia Wlaszczuk was the facilitator once again, setting 36-of-44 'Cuse kills. She also contributed a kill, a block assist and five digs.

Belle Sand played well in the back row, recording 10 digs and tying Salkute for the team high. Melina Violas matched Uattara with four digs in the match.

Breaking Down The Win
The Cavalier offense was successful in the opening two sets, swinging .267 and .333 respectively. However, Virginia's offense was simply outmatched by a thriving Orange offense, hitting .414 and .444 in the opening two sets.

In the third, both defenses stepped up, as Virginia hit .188 and Syracuse swung .186, but it was the Orange block party that was the difference, as Syracuse out-blocked Virginia 9-to-1.

After dropping the first to points to the Cavaliers, the Syracuse offense broke out winning the next seven points to take a 7-2 lead. Virginia fought back but struggled to maintain any kind of momentum it gained.

Virginia threatened the 'Cuse lead with the score at 12-10, but the Orange surged ahead, winning seven of the next 10 points to take a 19-13 lead. The Cavaliers didn't go down quietly as they strung together four straight points to pull within two before Uattara closed the set with a kill, winning the first 25-22.

The second set was the difference maker as the Orange couldn't seem to shake the Cavaliers after jumping out to a 6-3 lead. Despite the run, Virginia continued to give its best shot but Syracuse was unwilling to fall in the second set as the score was tied eight times until 'Cuse made its move with the score at 20.

'Cuse won the next two points to gain some distance with kills by Uattara and Levert and wouldn't look back, winning three of the next four points to win the second, 25-21.

The final stanza was a thriller for the 'Cuse fans in attendance. Syracuse continued to thrive on offense, building a 13-6 lead. However, similar to the previous sets, Virginia came out firing after a called timeout, staying close but never taking the lead or tying the score until it faced match point with the score at 24-21.

Virginia won the next three points to tie the set at 24 but a service error gave the Orange a 25-24 lead. In desperation to tie the set at 25, Tori Janowski was set for the kill but slammed the ball into the hands of Levert and Salkute, resulting in a block assist to win the set 26-24 and the match, in three sets.