SU’s showcases aggressive serving strategy despite straight set loss to North Carolina

Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Syracuse led 22-18 in the second set against North Carolina, searching for its first Atlantic Coast Conference win of the season. After trailing by as much as four earlier in the set, the Orange turned things around, looking to even the game at one set a piece. However, directly out of a Tar Heel timeout, the momentum flipped when Veronica Sierzant served the ball into the net.

Sierzant’s service error was one of nine from Syracuse (2-15, 0-7 ACC) in a straight sets loss to North Carolina (8-8, 2-5 ACC). The Orange served aggressively throughout the match, but at times struggled to keep them in play. Errors during the last two sets came back to haunt Syracuse, with each being decided by three or fewer points.

After Sierzant’s error, SU would not get another chance to serve in the second frame, as Maddy May won seven consecutive service points for North Carolina, turning the game in the Tar Heels favor.

Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam has been preaching aggressive serves over the past few weeks. On Tuesday, Ganesharatnam said “If we can serve tough, we can attack [UNC] on their serve receive, and get them out of system.”

Ganesharatnam said he implements the strategy to help the game open up for the Orange, but understands the risk involved.

“It comes with the territory, but you have to differentiate between good errors and bad errors,” he said, “tonight we didn’t have great misses.”

Slow starts have hurt Syracuse consistently this season, often playing from behind. The aggressive serving strategy was an attempt to change the trend.

“It’s all about taking the other team out of system,” Ganesharatnam said, “That means that they’re not setting up the offense the way that they want, reducing the number of attackers that are available.”

Alyssa Bert was a catalyst for the Orange’s aggressive serving strategy. Bert said she “serves to win all the time.”

“It’s about finding a rhythm with a risk window that’s high enough, but small enough that you’re not making too many errors,” Bert said.

Bert also knows that being aggressive comes with risks and can lead to errors. Five times this season Syracuse has had 10 or more service errors including 16 on Sept. 6 against Cornell.

“It’s disruptive [when we have a service error] because we can’t score,” Bert said, “If we don’t score, we don’t win.”

Bert downplayed the overall momentum shift of errors, saying that “it doesn’t disrupt in any way other than that.”

Against North Carolina, Syracuse took risks while serving and at times it paid off as the Orange finished with five aces. “We’re going to keep serving aggressively.” Bert said.

Although mistakes which have been prevalent throughout the season popped up again against the Tar Heels. Sierzant’s error wasn’t the only crucial mishap late in a set for the Orange. After winning back-to-back-to-back points in the third set, Syracuse cut UNC’s lead to just one. The next play Mira Ledermueller uncorked a ball that went well beyond the back boundary. However, Syracuse won the ensuing side-out, putting it right back in the same position, serving and down one point.

It was the same story, but with a different player. Antonio sailed her serve past the white line. While the Orange fought to avenge the errors, they never tied the game, losing 25-23 in the third and final set.

Syracuse cut down on attacking errors, recording just 13 — its lowest total of the season. The late lead in the second set was the result of the Orange’s strongest play all season. Although in the end, mistakes came back to haunt Syracuse for its 15th loss in 17 games.

Ganesharatnam doesn’t think the Orange are far away from a breakthrough. “We had two very winnable sets,” Ganesharatnam said, “Unfortunately, we just had our share of unforced errors. We had some good passes, but then we didn’t execute it right,” Ganesharatnam said, “But then, we went out of system, and had some good swings.”