Colgate extends streak over Syracuse with back-to-back wins

Syracuse and Colgate have a rich history in Central New York, one that Orange volleyball spent decades dominating. In the past few seasons, however, the Raiders have taken control. 

Colgate snapped Syracuse’s 18-game non-conference win streak on Friday night, which had been extended by two undefeated invitational finishes earlier this season. On Saturday, the Raiders resumed their recent command over Syracuse. 

The Orange struggled to get things going early. Miscommunication issues from junior Sydnie Waller and graduate student Oreva Evivie led to the Raiders’ six unanswered points in the first set and eventually an 18-10 deficit. Evivie only made one start before Saturday’s match. 

Lack of communication is inevitable when there are 10 new faces on the team. Several of the new additions made a significant impact on the roster, but some kinks in team chemistry must be sorted out heading into conference play at the end of the month. 

Syracuse made several other mistakes, including 20 attack errors and nine service errors, which proved costly in sets they lost by four points or fewer. 

Head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam says that despite the missteps, the team is right where they need to be. 

“It is okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them,” he said. “A lot of really promising things happened that show we are on the right path.” 

And things were promising indeed. 

Throughout the match, Syracuse failed to back down, even trailing two sets to none. 

Ganesharatnam encouraged them to keep their heads up and hearts in it until the match was final. 

Photo by Angelina Grevi

Syracuse players celebrate after a successful point against Colgate in the first set of the match at the Women’s Building on Saturday.

“This team believes that we can beat anybody on any given day at any given time in the match,” Ganesharatnam said. 

Junior Rana Yamada continued to shine at libero, increasing her digs total to 108. She was last year’s Region I Libero of the Year at Western Arizona and brings a lot of value to the defense. 

Despite this, Syracuse has now allowed opponents to have a higher than .200 hitting percentage in their last three matches. 

“It’s not so much that we aren’t doing our job on defense,” Ganesharatnam said. “We blocked well today, we forced the attackers to take option two and option three attacks, and I thought we made some really good adjustments.” 

Ganesharatnem also gave credit to Colgate, saying that they are robust both offensively and defensively. The Raiders have won four straight Patriot League championships, and are off to a 4-5 non-conference start this year. 

Another adjustment Syracuse had to make was with their lineup, as redshirt freshman outside hitter Skylar George did not re-enter the match after the second set. 

Colgate did well in containing George, holding her to a mere .043 hitting percentage. Friday night, they let George go off with 13 kills. They held her to just 4 with some increased pressure during Saturday’s game. 

This allowed freshman Marie Laurio to enter the match late and make an immediate impact for the Orange in back-to-back nights. She entered tonight in the third set and immediately picked up 2 kills, a dig, and an assisted block in just a few sets.

 “When I’m on the bench, I’m learning from [my teammates], I’m figuring out what’s open, I’m talking to them, and just keeping my energy up,” Laurio said. “No matter what is happening in the game, I need to be ready to go in and help my team out.” 

Photo by Angelina Grevi

Syracuse outside hitter Marie Laurio serves the ball to Colgate in the third set of the match at the Women’s Building on Saturday.

Laurio ended the match with 8 kills, 5 digs and 2 assisted blocks. She credits her teammates as a key reason for her recent success in rotation. 

“I’m just looking to take advantage of anything my setters give me,” she said. 

Ganesharatnam said this group is right on the brink of fully gelling, and the players are sharing the same sentiment. 

“What’s different about this team from other teams I’ve played on is our chemistry on and off the court,” said Evivie. “Right now we are just building discipline and maintaining that high level of play, and tonight was definitely a step in the right direction.” 

Syracuse has some troubles to work out and some problems to fix, but their hearts are all exactly where they are supposed to be. 

Even while trailing in the first set 18-10, they were able to crawl back and tie it at 21. In the final set, they were down 24-21 and tied it at 24. Evidently, neither of those sets went their way, but their will and desire kept them in it until the end. 

This same desire will be crucial moving forward into their home invitational on Sept. 19, where they face the Siena Saints.