Syracuse remains undefeated in conference play, defeats Duke in 4 sets
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Polina Shemanova bounced the ball eight times before she served to the back end of the court, meeting the knuckles of Sydney Tomlak. Tomlak dug the ball to Chang, who set it to Kerry Keefe for a tip over Raina Hughes.
The attempt, easily received by Shemanova on Syracuse’s side, was dug back toward Lauren Woodford. The senior launched a set over the back of her head, looking for Naomi Franco. The connection was clean and the ball hurtled toward Duke’s blockers, brushing the fingers of Lizzie Fleming as it sailed out of bounds.
“We did a good job of working together and finishing together,” Ganesharatnam said.
With the score tied at 3-3, fresh off of a second-set victory, the Orange took over, winning the next six points to jump out to a 7-3 lead. SU didn’t look back from there, taking the set by three points, 25-22. The ensuing, and eventually deciding set, finished 25-21 in Syracuse’s favor. SU (6-6, 2-0 Atlantic Coast) defeated Duke (9-3, 0-1 ACC) in four sets.
Syracuse started the game sluggish, dropping the first set to the Blue Devils 25-18. Midway through the set, the Orange managed to string together five unanswered points, but an onslaught of seven straight points from Duke wiped away SU’s brief lead.
On the offensive side, Shemanova led the way for the Orange, mustering up four kills. Yet it was unforced attacking errors that plagued Syracuse as blocked kills gifted Duke eight points. For the Blue Devils, Fleming had four kills of her own, with most of her success coming from her partnership with Chang.
“I just thought we needed to clean up our game a little on our side,” Ganesharatnam said. “We addressed that as a team and the players did a really good job committing to making sure that they would make those improvements and that was the difference.”
The second set proved to be the turning point for Syracuse as Woodford spearheaded a transformed offense from the prior set. Her eight assists helped Lokhmanchuk and Franco each record four kills.
This time around, neither team suffered from errors as the two sides combined to commit just 14 of them — six less than the total from set one. Prior to the start of league play, SU had been susceptible to end-of-set breakdowns. But the Orange made a late-set push, winning seven of the final eight points to level the score at one set apiece.
Syracuse largely dominated the final two sets through heavy hitting and suffocating defense. Franco added four kills in the third set to lead the offense for the Orange, while fellow right-side hitter, Hughes, played a part in all of SU’s four blocks in that set.
In the fourth set, Shemanova’s offensive prowess continued. The captain had five kills, including the last hit of the game to clinch Syracuse’ win.
“We’re going to keep crushing it and going for that first place,” Shemanova said. “I’m super excited and ready to go for more.”
Shemanova finished the match with a game-high 14 kills, bringing her ACC tally this season to 30 kills. Just two nights ago, the outside hitter enjoyed another record-breaking night during SU’s ACC opener against Boston College. Shemanova recorded 16 kills to leapfrog to second on Syracuse’s all-time kills list.
Franco was the only other SU player to finish in double-digit kills. Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk finished with nine to round up Syracuse’s top-three point-getters. Riley Hoffman continued her spectacular play following her career-high effort in assists against Boston College. Today, she produced 15 to go alongside Woodford’s 18.
Shemanova’s versatility was on full display as she finished with a game-high in digs with 20, almost doubling the total of Duke’s team-high. The ever-reliable Alyssa Bert finished second with 17 digs.
