Leading 24-17 in the second set, Syracuse head coach Leonid Yelin stood in front of his chair on the sidelines and turned left, looking down SU’s bench. He pointed to Elena Karakasi, a freshman setter who had appeared in only 34 sets this season prior to Sunday’s match.

Karakasi jogged down the white line separating the orange Women’s Building court from the blue out-of-bounds perimeter, passed Yelin, and entered to serve.

She bounced the ball three times, paused, and sent it straight over the net. Although an Ester Talamazzi kill prevented Karakasi from serving the set-clinching point, Ella Saada recorded her eighth kill of the game the next play and gave the Orange a two-set lead.

In normal situations, after Karakasi had her chance to serve, Yelin subs her out.

But on Sunday afternoon, Yelin had the flexibility to leave her in and allow his third-string setter to start the third set and play meaningful points.

Syracuse (17-7, 13-3 Atlantic Coast) continued its push for an NCAA tournament bid with a 3-0 win over Virginia Tech (14-15, 5-12). It marked the fifth straight win for the Orange, and their seventh in eight games. Saada and Polina Shemanova led the way with 11 kills each, while Amber Witherspoon contributed eight blocks and six kills.

During the first set, Syracuse was unable to put the Hokies away. The Orange never led by more than four points, until a block by Witherspoon and Shemanova and a kill by Santita Ebangwese gave SU a 25-19 win.

Syracuse’s late momentum from the first carried over into the second set, as it jumped out to a 7-0 lead behind a pair of aces by Saada and kills by Shemanova and Ebangwese. Virginia Tech wasn’t able to recover from the quick start, and SU led by as many as 10 during their 25-16 win.

In the third set, an Ella Saada kill broke a 7-7 tie and kick-started a 10-2 run that allowed SU to coast to their second-straight sweep.

Twice during that third set-run, Karakasi set kills by Shemanova. And Anastasiya Gorelina, a senior who had played in only 19 sets this season, subbed in with SU leading 20-9 and found herself with the chance for a game-winning kill 10 points later. She sailed it out of bounds.

However on Sunday, that didn’t matter. By the time Karakasi and Gorelina subbed in, the match’s result was all but confirmed. And like twelve other times so far in ACC play, it was an SU win and one step closer to their first NCAA tournament appearance in program history.

Syracuse continues its tournament quest with a match at North Carolina State (14-12, 8-8) on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Published on November 18, 2018 at 3:28 pm

Contact Andrew: [email protected] | @CraneAndrew