Syracuse downs Duke 3-1, moves to 4-0 in ACC play

Syracuse (8-4, 4-0 Atlantic Coast) continued its strong Atlantic Coast Conference start as it took down Duke (7-6, 1-3), 3-1 on Sunday afternoon in Durham, North Carolina. The Orange is now off to its best start ever in the ACC, winning its first four games of the conference cycle. The win extends the Orange’s current win streak to five games.

Syracuse did not make things easy on itself, however, and trailing early in sets was a reoccurring theme of the matchup. It was an especially sluggish start for SU in the first set, as the Orange had a hitting percentage of just .138, and the Blue Devils won it, 25-18. The Orange never led in the set.

The second set looked destined to end with the same result. Duke jumped out to the lead and held onto it for much of the game. The Orange did not take the lead until it was 24-23. The Blue Devils were able to tie it up, but ultimately, a kill by Santita Ebangwese ended the set at 26-24. That capped a 10-4 run by SU.

Although Syracuse took a 4-3 lead early in the third set, Duke once again started to pull away, hanging onto the lead until Syracuse took it back at 20-19. From there, the Orange finished strong and took the set 25-21 on a 10-2 run. SU finished with a hitting percentage of .412 during that set.

In the fourth set, the Orange didn’t have to make a late run as Syracuse never trailed. The Orange won the set 25-17 to win the match, with the winning point coming on a Polina Shemanova ace. SU’s star freshman led the match with 25 kills. Yuliia Yastrub was the only other Syracuse player to finish with double-digit kills with 14. Syracuse made fewer mistakes, only committing four service errors to Duke’s nine.

Syracuse will next play Pittsburgh on the road on Friday at 6 p.m., as the Orange looks to move to a 5-0 start in ACC play.