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Florida State’s Ava Pitchford tossed the ball up with her right hand and struck it with her left. The hit made a direct beeline toward Syracuse libero Alyssa Bert. Bert looked ready to receive, but at the last second, the ball dipped, arriving at her toes, a little shorter than she expected. Squatting down, Bert’s upper body lunged toward the ball and her hands made contact, sending Pitchford’s serve hurtling past the sideline for an FSU point. This put the Seminoles up by 10 late in the second set after the Orange had already dropped the first. 

Unforced errors were a problem throughout the game for Syracuse (10-11, 6-5 Atlantic Coast) in its four-set loss at home to Florida State (15-7, 7-4 ACC). Trouble with receiving the ball off of serves and with serving itself, on the offensive side, cost the Orange their fifth loss in conference play. After trailing by two sets, Syracuse roared back to take the third. And although SU kept the fourth set close to begin with, the same mistakes early on came back to haunt them as Florida State won eight of the final 10 points to secure victory. 

In the penultimate possession, Emma Clothier’s serve lofted over the net toward Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk. On its way down, the ball swerved suddenly to the left forcing Lokhmanchuk to get down on her knees and angle her body. With her left knee on the ground and her right leg in a crouching position, the ball ricocheted off of Lokhmanchuk’s hands, trickling under the net to give the Seminoles their third straight win. 

“Our serve receive was not the greatest and we need to serve the ball a little more aggressively but it happens,” SU head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said.

Normally quite consistent in dealing with opposition services throughout this season, Syracuse’s 16 errors on the night quadrupled Florida State’s total. The number was also SU’s highest of the season. Despite her season-high in reception errors being just three, Bert was responsible for eight against the Seminoles.

Lokhmanchuk totaled five, most of them coming in the early stages of the match. In the fourth and final set, with Florida State leading 16-14, Bert dug the ball up to Ariana Joubert who played a pass intended for a Lokhmanchuk spike. As Lokhmanchuk jumped and connected with the ball, she landed awkwardly and winced before stumbling toward the net, clutching at her right knee. 

“She’s been in a lot of pain throughout the season. She’s doing a really good job managing the pain and doing whatever she can for us every weekend,” Ganesharatnam said. “She’s doing the best she can but she is playing and training with a lot of pain.

In the first set alone, six unforced errors were made. Two of them coming consecutively at crucial stages. Trailing by seven, 18-11, Clothier delivered a serve that grazed the net before dropping, untouched, in front of Lokhmanchuk to increase the lead for Florida State. On the ensuing possession, off of another Clothier serve, Bert seemed to misjudge the hit, sending the ball careening off of her hands to put the Seminoles up by nine as Ganesharatnam gestured for a timeout. 

In the third set, which SU won, 25-20, service reception was still an issue with the opening two points going to the Seminoles off of errors. Florida State’s Lauryn Burrows opened the set up targeting Lokhmanchuk. The first serve hit Lokhamanchuk on the forearm before flying out, past the baseline, out of reach from a determined Bert who was trying to extend the possession.

Lokhmanchuk looked like she had Burrows’ second serve well-controlled, but unfortunately, the ball bounced wildly toward the antenna, handing FSU their eleventh ace of the night up to that point. The Seminoles would finish the game with 16 total.

Polina Shemanova led all players with a game-high 19 kills, but tacked on the most service errors as well with three. Lauren Woodford and Raina Hughes also added one apiece to bring the total up to five for Syracuse. A plethora of miscues, uncharacteristic play, and unforced errors was what hurt the Orange the most.

“Moving forward we just need to be more consistent and have less ups and downs,” Ganesharatnam said.

Published on October 29, 2022 at 12:31 am

Contact Tyler: [email protected] | @theTylerSchiff