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Marina Markova and Abby Casiano shifted to the middle of the court as the ball was set to Mckenna Slavik. The pair jumped up with their hands high above the net while Slavik stretched her arm back so she could spike the ball. Slavik’s spike fell right into the combined hands of Casiano and Markova and fell back on the floor. 

In the next play, Casiano and Markova got their second consecutive block when they did the same thing to Aźyah Dailey, putting Syracuse up 12-11 in the third set.

The Orange (15-7, 4-6 Atlantic Coast) posted a strong defensive performance against a weakened Clemson team (11-10, 3-7 ACC) to propel them to a straight-set win on Sunday.

Before the game started, Colleen Finney collapsed to the ground after the playing of the national anthem. Finney, who had 72 kills entering the game, rose to her feet with the help of athletic trainers. She returned to the bench to watch her team play but didn’t appear in the game.

The loss of Finney hurt the Tigers’ offense, and Clemson was also missing outside hitter Camryn Hannah, who is second on the team in kills. 

Syracuse took advantage of this and started out the game on a 5-0 run, with four points coming off Clemson errors. On the second point, Clemson’s Ani Clark lightly tapped the ball over the net, so Markova jumped up and slammed the ball back to the ground to notch her first solo block of the day. 

A few rallies later, Izzy Plummer and Elena Karakasi both synchronously jumped to record a block and increase the lead to 14-6. Then, two rallies later, there was a media timeout that allowed Clemson to regain its composure, resulting in a 7-1 run to get within three. But Markova and Plummer recorded another block to end the run. After stopping the Clemson comeback, Syracuse won the set 25-17 and held Clemson to a .061 hitting percentage.

In the second set, Syracuse only recorded two blocks and was more reliant on the backline to successfully dig Clemson’s attacks, which created higher-percentage looks for the Orange’s offense.

The set began with a clean dig from Lauren Hogan off the Clemson serve, and then Karakasi quickly set Markova to the left side and put SU up 1-0. Markova then blocked Clemson’s first attack. 

The set was more back-and-forth compared to the first one. Clemson responded with a .211 hitting percentage, and Syracuse found itself down 16-13 late due to gaps in its blocks throughout the set. But Hogan and Polina Shemanova gave the team a boost by giving the setters easy balls to control after successful digs, which helped the Orange tie the game at 19. 

“Having a good pass leads to better offense,” Casiano said. “If it’s perfectly on the net, we have all three options, it scrambles their defense and gives us a better opportunity to score.”

Later, Clemson accidentally bumped the ball over the net so Markova, who barely had to jump, reached over and sent it straight to the ground. Syracuse then stretched the lead to 23-20 after Hogan bumped Clemson’s attack attempt right to Karakasi who hit it over herself, forcing a Clemson attack error on its return.

To close out the set, Casiano and Naomi Franco blocked Clemson’s attack, but the ball spun on the top of the net and fell right back down to Franco. She quickly reacted and bumped her own block attempt to Karakasi, who set Markova for the kill, giving Syracuse a 2-0 lead in the match.

In the third and final set, Syracuse forced six attack errors, giving it the set sweep. Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk, who hadn’t played in four games, started the set on the court, giving the front line height and experience. She recorded the first kill of a spike from the right side. 

Like the second set, the third was tightly contested in the beginning. Syracuse went down 4-2, but Markova recorded another kill from the left side. She followed it up with a block assist to even the set at four. 

Two rallies later, Casiano and Karakasi stuffed a Clemson attack on the right side. Then, the pair had two more combined blocks in a row to give Syracuse a 12-11 lead. 

Syracuse started to separate from Clemson and got a 22-18 lead. On the next rally, Shemanova failed to control the ball on the dig, bumping it all the way to the roof.

It didn’t matter to Markova, though, as the ball fell down right over the net. She recognized she could still get the kill, so she tapped it over to the Clemson side, giving the Orange a five-point lead and forcing a Clemson timeout. But it was too late, as Syracuse got the next two points and snapped its five-game losing streak.

“Today is the first time I saw people who (were) playing defense very well, people who I did not even expect,” head coach Leonid Yelin said.

Published on October 24, 2021 at 6:25 pm

Contact Adam: [email protected]