Syracuse swept by No. 7 Pittsburgh again, falls below .500 in ACC play

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Cat Flood stood at the endline, bounding the ball on the ground, setting herself for a serve. Flood sent a low, hard serve over the net to the Syracuse side. Flood’s serve found Alyssa Bert, who was jammed, trying to dig the ball out to one of her teammates. Bert lost control of her dig, accidentally sending it back over the net, giving Pitt a chance for a kill. 

Julianna Dalton was in the right place at the right time for the Panthers, standing right at the net as the ball came to her. The 6-foot-5 Dalton set her feet and timed her jump perfectly, spiking the ball back. Her combination of height and timing made it impossible for any SU player to save the ball, giving Dalton her eighth kill of the game.

Dalton’s kill handed Syracuse (11-14, 7-8 ACC) its second loss to Pitt (25-2, 15-0 ACC) in a week. The Panthers defeated the Orange last Friday in straight sets, and tonight was no different. Syracuse tried to keep pace, but Pitt proved to be too much for SU to handle.

Syracuse started the game slow, with Pitt jumping out to an 8-3 lead after four straight points from the Panthers. Pitt continued to dominate play in the set while the Orange struggled to find a rhythm. SU committed five service errors in the opening set alone, not giving itself a chance to win points. Against a team like Pitt, giving out free points hurts and when the Orange kept the ball in play, Pitt still dominated. Syracuse never got close, losing 25-14 in the first set, a big difference from Syracuse’s first set a week ago against Pitt. Syracuse kept the first set close, losing 25-23, but this time around it was a different story. 

The second set was more competitive than the first, but Syracuse never threatened to take control. Pitt never went on any major runs throughout the match, but it incorporated smaller runs which helped them stay in control throughout. The Panthers slowly built its lead in the second set, going up 12-7 after a service ace from Rachel Fairbanks. Syracuse would get it to 19-15 later on, but three straight points from Pitt boosted them to a 25-18 win in the second set.

One player from Pitt didn’t dominate Syracuse, it was a collective effort with eight different players recording a kill. None of the Pitt players reached double figure kills, Dalton had eight, Valeria Vazquez Gomez and Courtney Buzzerio had seven and Serena Gray had six. The Panthers were efficient, recording a hit percentage of .367 for the match.

 The following set was much of the same, unforced errors from Syracuse which Pitt capitalized on. Pitt defeated Syracuse 25-15 in the final set to stay undefeated in ACC play, recording its 18th straight win, the most out of any power five team. 

Syracuse’s offense struggled to get going against Pitt, recording just 31 kills in the game, its second lowest total of the season. Polina Shemanova failed to reach double digit kills for just the fourth time this season, recording eight. Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk was the only Syracuse player to get 10 kills with Naomi Franco getting eight. No other SU player had more than three on the night.