Orange volleyball completes promising weekend, despite sweep to Pitt

The mindset for the Syracuse volleyball team heading into their Oct. 4 match against Pittsburgh was simple: ignore who the players are on the other side of the net and play against whatever team they might make up.  That team happened to be ranked No. 2 nationally, with one of the best players in recent memory as its star.

Syracuse fell to the Pitt Panthers in straight 25-20 sets Sunday, showing fire and competition against a Pitt team with six ranked wins so far in their undefeated season. 

Syracuse showed promise in its previous match against the SMU Mustangs, going on runs and forcing SMU to adjust heavily in an eventual sweep Friday. Pitt entered the Women’s Building having swept the Boston College Eagles in Chestnut Hill Friday night. 

This Pitt team, similar to SMU featured two AVCA Preseason Player of the Year candidates in senior right-side hitter Olivia Babcock and junior setter Izzy Starck. Its strongest ranked wins came over No. 3 Kentucky and No. 6 Wisconsin. 

The match started off with a duo of early kills for Syracuse fifth-year middle blocker Abby Nicholson, as well as early contributions from the team’s leading outside hitters: juniors Emma Williams and Kiernan Stamey. Both of Pitt’s pin hitters brought trouble to the Orange defense, with Babcock on the right and freshman Ayanna Watson on the left. Both would go on to notch at least 12 kills on the day, but wreaked havoc in this first set. 

Despite the offensive firepower the Panthers brought with them, Syracuse found an answer, never trailing by more than 6 points throughout the first set. However, that 4-to-5 point gap was enough to keep Pitt comfortable, and Starck set a ball up to Babcock to seal the first set, 25-20.

The Orange hopped out to an early 6-2 lead in the second set, coming out of the gates swinging and finding ways to stymie the Panthers’ offense at every turn early on. However, Starck got back on the serve line after Pitt had clawed the gap down to 2, and the Panthers scored on the next 9 consecutive points, erasing the difference and putting Pitt back on top. The rest of the set swung back and forth, with Syracuse narrowing the Panthers’ lead to 2, before Pitt went on another run. It took Pitt three set points to put the Orange away and go up 2-0, but eventually did on a kill from Watson. 

Syracuse kept Pitt close in the third set, letting the Panthers hold only a 2-point lead throughout a large portion of it. Stamey caught fire late in the second set and continued with her momentum for the rest of the match. For every Babcock kill, Stamey answered with one, it seemed. 

As Pitt pulled away, Panthers head coach Dan Fisher made a substitution, putting in freshman outside hitter Lola Sageer for a few points late in the set. Sageer attended Liverpool High School, just outside of Syracuse, and is hailed as one of the best to come through the Syracuse high school volleyball scene. The crowd erupted when Sageer got onto the court. 

The match for Syracuse ended as it has for many other teams standing across the court from Pitt this season: Olivia Babcock kill from Izzy Starck. Straight sets of 25-20, another loss for Syracuse, which has yet to win a set in ACC play. 

“We came out today, and we just wanted to compete, not just against Olivia Babcock. We wanted to compete against Pitt, and we wanted to beat Pitt, right? As a competitor, that’s what you’re trying to do,” Orange head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said after the match. 

Two players on Syracuse nearly matched statistics with Babcock and Starck: Stamey hitting 14 kills to Babcock’s 18, while freshman setter Charis Burge notched 27 assists and 2 kills to Starck’s 30 and 3.  

“We want to get her to the level where she can be an all-American type of a player, you know, and that takes process, right? Progression, and that takes buying in and taking the time to put yourself in uncomfortable situations,” Ganesharatnam said about Stamey.

Stamey had this match circled on her calendar. 

“I’ve been looking forward to this game since we started playing, and I wasn’t going to let my nerves get to me. I just wanted to go out there and play for the team and give it my all,” she said. 

Syracuse will hope to transition two straight valiant losses against top-5 teams into success on the road, next traveling to Raleigh to face the NC State Wolfpack Friday. The Orange return home on Oct. 23 to play the Virginia Cavaliers.