Syracuse drops ACC opener in straight sets to No. 5 Louisville

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Entering its matchup with Louisville, last years NCAA Championship runners-up, Syracuse were losers of 15 consecutive sets. The last time SU beat the Cardinals was in November of 2019, nearly four years ago. And, in Friday evening’s matchup against UofL, the Orange continued to struggle.

Syracuse committed four attacking errors to start its third set against Louisville. A Cardinal kill gave the visitors its first of three 5-0 runs in the final set as the Orange (2-9, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) fell 3-0 to Louisville (10-1, 1-0 ACC). SU finished with negative kill percentages in two of the three sets, committed 25 errors and was ultimately picked apart by the Cardinals’ whopping 38 kills.

Trailing 2-0 to begin the opening set, SU got on the board after a Louisville service error. The first set was the sloppiest for the Cardinals as they recorded three of their total seven service errors in the period.

Louisville, however, went on to score three of the next four points to generate a 5-2 advantage. SU’s Greta Schlicter and Lauren McCabe collected the visitors’ first two kills of the contest but the Orange tallied four errors immediately after, gifting the Cardinals a 5-2 run.

Though Syracuse was able to make things 12-7 off of a Louisville service error, Anna Debeer, who totaled a team-high nine kills for the Cardinals, halted a short-lived stretch of SU momentum.

Outside hitter Cherlin Antonio proved to be SU’s most dangerous threat of the evening. She finished with a game-high 11 kills. Antonio ended the game with 34 kill attempts, over a third of SU’s total.

Up 13-8, the Cardinals then went on to score five of the next seven points. In what ended up the closest set of the three, both sides traded points until the score read 23-15. But Debeer recorded another two timely kills to secure a first set victory for Louisville.

To begin the second set, a combined block between McCabe and Antonio put Syracuse on the board. A Schlicter service ace put SU up 2-0 — its largest lead of the night. In response, Louisville answered with a 6-0 run fueled by four attacking errors by Antonio.

Antonio eventually helped her own team put points on the board, registering a kill to bring the score to 3-6. But the Cardinals brought the pressure yet again, embarking on a 9-2 run.

Louisville continued its dominance sandwiching Syracuse spurts with a 4-0 run and a 3-0 run. Its firepower was just too much for the Orange to handle. As a result, the Cardinals won their second set, 25-11.

The third and final set looked wasn’t competitive. Syracuse managed a season-low eight points in the period. The first four points of the set came from attack errors by the Orange. These miscues contributed to the team’s -0.056 hitting percentage in the match.

On the other hand, the Cardinals looked like a well oiled machine, hitting on over 45 percent as a team to give Syracuse a loss in its first conference bout.