Syracuse’s two biggest issues this season have been starting and finishing games. The Orange solved one issue Saturday against Marquette with a hot start, but not much was done to quell the concern about closing out games.

And as has been the case so many times this season, the Orange lost a match that could have changed the fortunes of its season.

‘We’ve talked about continuing to execute the game plan,’ Syracuse assistant coach Kelly Morrisroe said. ‘It could be a little bit of mental exhaustion at the end of the game. We throw a lot of knowledge and information at our girls, and they’re kind of taking it well, but we just have to continue to play our game.’

Morrisroe has been concerned lately with how flat the Orange (13-8, 3-3 Big East) had come out in the opening set of matches. While that was solved against the Golden Eagles (16-5, 6-0), Syracuse failed to address its issue of closing out games. Syracuse dropped the final three sets of a 3-1 loss to Marquette and was held to just 14 points in the final frame Saturday in front of 137 at the Women’s Building. The loss dropped SU to eighth place in the Big East standings, and eight teams qualify for the Big East tournament.

Syracuse started fast, jumping out to a 4-1 lead in the first set. Marquette’s only point came on a play in which Ying Shen and Ashley Williams collided. Both were able to continue playing and SU continued to cruise.

Syracuse took its largest lead on a kill by Samantha Hinz to put the team up by 10 over Big East-leading Marquette before taking the set 25-18.

Hinz and the Orange defense starred for SU in the first set, holding Marquette to just a .022 hitting percentage and tallying six blocks.

‘That was a huge reason why we had so much momentum in the first set,’ Morrisroe said of the defense. ‘Going up against such a strong offense, it was great to see that our defense can come out.’

But an offense with as many weapons as the Golden Eagles’ was too tough to be held back for long.

All three of Marquette’s star hitters came to play in the final three sets. After being contained by the SU defense in the opening frame, Ciara Jones, Ashley Beyer and Danielle Carlson finished the match with 17, 13 and 16 kills, respectively. The Golden Eagles took the next two sets 25-23.

‘They have such a strong offense overall,’ SU outside hitter Noemie Lefebvre said. ‘It’s not just that one player, so whenever we were focusing on this one, someone else would pick it up and come after us.’

The final frame for Syracuse was a polar opposite from the start. This time, the Orange was held to just a .057 hitting percentage in the final set. Not to mention the Golden Eagles were able to rack up a .484 hitting clip.

‘Our defense proved to be a little bit better than their offense in the first set, but we can’t live and die on our defense,’ Morrisroe said. ‘In the fourth set we had no blocks. While our defense is strong, we can’t live and die on it.’

The Orange went without a block in the final set against Marquette, and it showed on the scoreboard. SU led just once in the set and lost by its largest deficit in any set this season in Big East play.

Syracuse continued its struggles late in matches. SU hasn’t been able to hold onto early leads. Syracuse has now won the first set in six straight matches. The larger problem is the Orange has now lost two in a row after leading through one frame.

In fact, the only five-set match SU has won this season came after trailing 2-0 to Youngstown State.

But despite the apparent issues, Syracuse still feels it has the talent to make it to the eight-team Big East tournament. Middle blocker Lindsey McCabe said the Golden Eagles — even after the fourth-set disaster — think SU can make the postseason as well.

‘Marquette’s undefeated still, and they’ve beat some good teams already,’ McCabe said. ‘The (Marquette head coach Bond Shymansky) even said to us shaking his hand, ‘See you at the Big East tournament.’ I think we’re showing other teams even if we’re losing the match what we can do.’

dbwilson@syr.edu