Syracuse falls to No. 3 Pittsburgh in straight sets, ending season with 18 straight losses
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During the first set of Syracuse’s match against No. 3 Pittsburgh, it struggled mightily to score against the Panthers, the best defensive team in the Atlantic Coast Conference and one of the best in the country.
With the score 24-8 in favor of Pitt, Syracuse had the ball ready to serve. Alyssa Bert was at the service line, looking to give her team a spark. Bert’s serve went awry out of bounds, giving Pittsburgh the set win.
In its final match of the season, Syracuse (2-26, 0-18 ACC) was swept by Pittsburgh (24-4, 16-2 ACC) as the Orange couldn’t contain the Panthers. No Syracuse player recorded more than six kills as the Orange recorded just 33 points over three sets against Pitt.
The first set of the match was the most lopsided of the three. Pittsburgh got on the board first with a kill by freshman Olivia Babcock. Syracuse countered quickly, as Lauren McCabe got SU’s first points. Kills were hard to come by for SU throughout the game, but specifically in the first set. The Panthers defense held the Orange to only four kills and a negative hitting percentage.
After McCabe’s score, it was Pittsburgh who came with back-to-back kills by Emma Monks and Babcock respectively. The Panthers looked to continue their run, but a miscue on the set gave the Orange a point.
After the mistake, the No. 3 ranked team in the nation dominated Pitt went on a 7-0 run which included four straight service aces by Babcock.
Syracuse managed to get a point on the board due to a service error from Babcock. However, SU was unable to build momentum afterwards as the Panthers went on another run, this time scoring five straight.
A kill by Greta Schlichter disrupted that streak, making the score 15-4. After a couple back and forths, Pittsburgh caught fire again. The Panthers scored seven out of eight points to win the first set 25-8.
Entering the second set, the Panthers started right where they left off by scoring four out of five points. The two squads traded scores for a spell before Pitt scored two straight, courtesy of freshman Torrey Stafford and redshirt senior Valeria Vazquez-Gomez.
It was then McCabe who recorded the next kill. Pitt’s Julianna Dalton got one of her two kills on the evening afterwards. Syracuse then scored off a service error from Pitt, but returned the favor with an error themselves right after. Eventually another error gave Pitt a 14-9 lead.
The Panthers then went on a 5-0 run, which included an emphatic kill by Stafford, who ended the game with a game-high nine kills. The Orange responded with their first major run of the match, scoring three straight. However, Pittsburgh’s offense was too much for Syracuse to handle. Vazquez-Gomez had four kills as the Panthers finished the set with six straight points to win, 25-12.
Pittsburgh scored two straight to start the final set of the season for Syracuse. Melina Brooking soon got SU on the board in the set with a kill.
Pitt’s Babcock scored on the next play. But on the following possession at the service line, she hit the net, giving SU a point. Pittsburgh kept up the pressure, scoring the next two points with kills by Stafford and Blaire Bayless.
Schlichter prevented the Panthers from going on another run with a kill. But it was Stafford and Bayless again who scored back-to-back to make the score 7-3. Bayless would score again in between a pair of McCabe kills for the Orange.
Pittsburgh then went on a 4-0 run which included a kill and a block from the freshman Babcock. Zharia Harris-Waddy scored to halt the run, but Pitt was already rolling offensively. Scoring four in a row again.
A Babcock attack error would end the Panthers run for a moment. An ace by Babcock and a kill by Stafford gave Pitt their 11-point lead. Although Syracuse strung some points together off miscues by Pittsburgh, the deficit was too much to overcome. SU lost their final set of the year 25-13. The end of the match capped off the worst season in program history, losing 18 games in a row and going winless in conference play.
