On Friday night, the regular season ended for the Syracuse volleyball team. On Monday, Nov. 20, another season begins.

It’s a stretch the team hopes will last longer this time around than it has in the previous two seasons.

On Nov. 20, the Big East Tournament will take place in Louisville, Ky., Syracuse (21-10, 9-5 Big East) finished fifth in the Big East Conference, its best mark since the current seniors arrived on campus in 2006. After not making the tournament in 2006, SU had a No. 8 seed and No. 6 seed coming into the tournament in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Both times the Orange was thwarted in the first round by Louisville, failing to win a set in either contest.

If history means anything, Syracuse should be wary heading into its first round matchup. For the third consecutive season, SU will meet up against Louisville (17-10, 10-4) in the opening round of the tournament.

Louisville has defeated SU eight straight games, including a 3-1 win on Oct. 30.on the Cardinals’ home court. In addition to SU having to battle a team that has handled them rather easily in recent memory, the Orange will also lose the benefit of neutrality. Playing in Louisville will allow the Cardinals to have an overwhelming home court advantage.

As the seniors gear up for the last run of their careers at SU, they acknowledge that there is some added inspiration heading into this year’s tournament.

‘We always need to win the first game so obviously that’s on our minds,’ said senior outside hitter Kacie MacTavish. ‘But knowing that that there is no other chance and that this is our last year, we really want this win, and hopefully we can make it to the NCAA tournament.’

If Syracuse is able to win the Big East Tournament, though, SU will receive an automatic bid to the NCAAs, which would be a first for the program. On some occasions, the runner-up in the Big East Tournament has received an invitation to the NCAA tournament, but this would be highly unlikely for the Orange in that scenario.

With a 21-10 overall record and a 9-5 mark in the mediocre Big East, Syracuse’s resume likely wouldn’t turn many heads in the NCAA selection committee. As a result, Syracuse can’t afford many mistakes when it takes the court against Louisville.

Though middle blocker and co-captain Sarah Morton acknowledges that a challenge lies ahead in Louisville, she chooses to look on the bright side and feel good about the fact that SU won’t have to meet Pittsburgh (20-8, 12-2) in the first round of the tournament.

‘We wanted to go in to the tournament as the fifth seed, not the sixth seed,’ Morton said. ‘We didn’t want to play Pittsburgh in the first round, so beating Villanova is a big win in the sense that hopefully we won’t have to play them until the second or third round.’

With SU concluding its schedule on Friday night, it had to wait until the end of the weekend to find out where it would be seeded in the upcoming tournament, as the rest of the Big East teams had yet to finalize their schedules.

On Sunday, Morton got her wish. As South Florida fell to Notre Dame late Sunday afternoon, USF fell to 9-5 in the Big East Conference. Because Syracuse defeated USF earlier in the season, SU moved up to fifth in the conference, and South Florida fell below them to sixth.

As Syracuse gets ready to attempt to win its first Big East Tournament game since 2005, the Orange embarks on a challenge that will not be easily attainable. However, it is in tournament time that teams get hot and regular season records suddenly are meaningless. It is a time for upsets and miracles, and the Orange will try to catch fire at just the right time.

‘I think we’re a better team than we were last year,’ concluded assistant coach Carol LaMarche. ‘I think overall we’re better and I think we’re pretty confident going into the tournament that we have a great opportunity to move past the first round. And if we go past the first round, we’re into the semifinals, and anything can happen then.’

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Published on November 16, 2009 at 12:00 pm