Syracuse rallies to beat Boston College 3-1 despite Shemanova leaving mid-match
On Wednesday night, Syracuse faced one of its worst fears: an injury to its star player.
Late in the second set, leading scorer Polina Shemanova was forced to the sidelines with an injury and didn’t return. However, behind 20 kills from Ella Saada, 12 from Christina Oyawale and eight from Kendra Lukacs, the Orange (14-7, 10-3 Atlantic Coast) still produced on offense and dispatched Boston College (13-12, 3-10) in four sets, 3-1 in the Women’s Building.
“I still played my game and tried to do my best,” Saada said of taking on a larger role in Shemanova’s absence. “All of us, Polina is a good player, she can’t play now. We all had to step up and do our job.”
Head coach Leonid Yelin said Shemanova hadn’t been feeling “good” for the last few matches. Upon arriving in Louisville Saturday, she couldn’t do anything other than work out with a trainer. She recovered for the game Sunday, but Yelin believes it took a toll on her.
The five-set match Sunday lasted about three hours. Shemanova played her usual large role, leading the way for SU with 19 kills.
“Coming, flying back after playing three hours, flying back didn’t help,” Yelin said. “Monday we had all day off and Tuesday we didn’t use her. It’s not enough time to recover. It looks like this time it’s, I hope it’s she’ll recover and maybe just get taped a little bit more. I don’t know.”
Still, the Orange played well enough to win in four sets. SU won the first set 26-24 with Shemanova, but she didn’t look herself finishing with a -.154 hitting percentage and only two kills. Upon her leaving in the second set, Syracuse finished on a strong 7-5 run to win 25-21.
In the third set, however, Syracuse lost 25-22 to Boston College despite once holding a 22-21 lead. The Orange came out firing in the fourth set, however, easily putting the match away with a 25-13 win.
“Third set, we got a little comfortable knowing we could take this team,” Amber Witherspoon said. “I think in the fourth set we realized how we didn’t want to be in a position where they got the lead and they could really take flight on us. The fourth set was ‘Okay, put it away. No more playing. Let’s get it done.’”
Witherspoon and her seven blocks helped Syracuse dominate Boston College at the net, as the Orange finished with 15 blocks to the Eagles five. Syracuse was also able to outhit Boston College .333 to .149 and forced 32 attack errors while only committing 14.
Yelin was pleased with his players who took on bigger roles.
“When it’s a situation like that and we lost [Shemanova] and we don’t know how long, Ella, definitely, it’s her best match of the season she played,” Yelin said. “She definitely stepped up. And Kendra came and she’s really better than I expected with her not playing this position the whole season. We got to be happy.”
The complete team performance comes in the middle of a hectic travel week for the Orange that Yelin said has left his team “extremely tired.” After coming back from a road trip this past weekend, the Orange had to play their only Wednesday game of the season. On Thursday morning it will leave for Virginia Tech who it plays Friday, followed by a trip to Georgia Tech for a game Sunday.
Yelin emphasized he wants his team to try to get as much rest as possible but said: “Unfortunately we don’t have it.”
Although players like Saada, Lukacs and Witherspoon were able to carry the load on Wednesday night, the Orange hope its star player will return soon.
“We saw the doctor and he had some suggestions and our trainer’s working with her,” Yelin said of Shemanova. “So we’ll see how we’re going to come, how she’s going to feel and if not she will definitely see the doctor and maybe he will come up with something for her. Because we need her.”
