Service improvement guides SU to straight-set win over Georgia Tech

With Syracuse ahead of Georgia Tech by nine points, 21-12, senior Santita Ebangwese trotted toward the service area. She slammed the ball into the ground three times, leaped into the air, and fired the serve forward.

The ball spun through the air as it approached Georgia Tech sophomore libero Sam Knapp. Knapp kneeled down as she prepared to dig and volley the ball toward her teammate. Ebangwese’s serve was too powerful. It deflected off her hands and into the ground near the Georgia Tech sideline.

Syracuse (5-4, 1-0 Atlantic Coast) dominated Georgia Tech (11-3, 0-1) in straight sets, 25-14, 27-25, 25-21, in the ACC opener for both teams. SU totaled six aces to only three service errors. To this point of the season, Syracuse had struggled with its serve. The Orange averaged over two errors per set and ranked 293 in the country in aces per set prior to facing the Yellow Jackets.

Today, the Orange tallied three more aces than service errors, 6-3, its largest difference of the season. Ebangwese and senior Mariia Levanova lead the way with two aces each. “Practice” helped reverse the season-long struggles, senior middle blocker Amber Witherspoon said.

“Our team goal to be very aggressive from the serve,” SU head coach Leonid Yelin said. “If we’re knocking them out of their system, that’s how we’re winning points.”

Syracuse identified its serve as a weakness since the beginning of summer practices, junior Aliah Bowllan said. Yet, that effort was not evident in the first eight games of the season.

In its past three games against University of Wyoming, Iowa, and Iowa State, SU totaled 33 service errors in only 15 sets. Still, Yelin firmly believes that the Orange were not any more or less successful against Georgia Tech in terms of serving, he said.

In the first set of the match against Georgia Tech, SU finally improved. A few moments after Ebangwese’s ace, the Yellow Jackets trailed by nine points, 23-14, Yuliia Yastrub stepped up to the baseline with an opportunity to provide Syracuse a set point. She floated the ball toward freshman Maddie Tippett. The inexperienced Yellow Jackets player attempted to dig the ball into the air, but she whiffed and sent it into the feet of her teammate. The Orange won the next point and the first set via a Georgia Tech ball handling error.

Syracuse’s serving and ability to limit errors forced Georgia Tech out of its system, Yelin said.

“It’s really important not to make mistakes,” senior Jalissa Trotter said. “We know sometimes they do happen but that’s why we have each other to help us put in something from everyone else so we can all work together.”

Trotter leads the team in service errors with 16, but did not miss once in the ACC opener.

Throughout the next two sets, Syracuse continued to use its serving to handle the Yellow Jackets. Ebangwese powered her second ace during an 11-2 run at the end of the second set.

In the third, Levanova spun the ball into the teeth of the Georgia Tech defense. Yellow Jacket redshirt junior Coral Kazaroff dove to reach the ball, but could only get within an arm’s reach before it smacked against the floor, extending the Orange lead to 5-2. Levanova flung her arms in the air and rejoiced as her teammates encouraged her.

“I think a big thing that we have now is confidence and when we have confidence, we can feed off of each other’s energy,” Trotter said.