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As soon as Boston College scored its third consecutive point to jump out to a 23-20 lead in the penultimate set, Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam called a timeout.

Almost two months ago, the Orange were in a similar position against the Eagles in their Atlantic Coast Conference season opener. In the Sept. 21 game, SU came back from losing the first set and facing multiple match points in the fifth set to win. Today, Syracuse was just two points away from suffering its fourth sweep in five games.

The timeout ended and Grace Penn stepped up to serve for BC. The ball flew straight into the path of Alyssa Bert, who lunged at it. Bert sent a dig toward Riley Hoffman, who set the ball across the court to Polina Shemanova. Shemanova made perfect contact with the ball, smashing it over the net with too much power for libero Anna Murphy to handle.

For the next three plays, service errors from both sides would decide the game. First, a Hoffman serve skied high and out of bounds to put the Eagles back up by three. On the ensuing possession, Boston College’s Silvia Ianeselli couldn’t get the ball over the net on match point. But it would be a Shemanova service error, her third of the afternoon, that would give BC the win, 25-22.

Boston College (18-12, 6-10 ACC) defeated Syracuse (11-15, 7-9 ACC) at home on Sunday afternoon, clinching its first conference win and first three-set victory over Syracuse since October 2014 in sweeping fashion.

Shemanova and Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk shared a two-way tie for the team-high in kills for Syracuse. Both players finished with 12 kills. Despite the loss, both players were efficient on the offensive front, with Shemanova converting 32.1% of her attacking attempts and Lokhmanchuk converting 40% of hers. The only other SU player to finish with a double-digit kill total was Naomi Franco, who added 10.

Woodford recorded a team-high 29 assists but didn’t receive much help. The second most assists contributed by an SU player was just three, coming from Shemanova.

Boston College led Syracuse in almost every major statistical category. The only category the Orange had the edge in was digs. Shemanova produced 10, Bert had nine, and Lokhmanchuk totaled five for SU’s total of 30 on the afternoon, one more than the Eagles.

Ianeselli led the way for the Eagles with 12 kills, tying both Shemanova and Lokhamnchuk’s totals. A big reason why BC leads the ACC in total kills, the Italian was dominant around the net and the backcourt as she picked up four service aces as well as seven digs.

From the start, it was a game of runs between the two teams. Down 6-3 early in the first set, Syracuse strung together seven consecutive points to lead 10-6. But BC later scored five unanswered points to regain the lead. At the end of the set, the Eagles scored three straight to win 25-23.

For the Orange, the second set was more of the same — both sides would be locked in a tight race to the finish, but SU would lose steam at the end. Lapses of concentration, fueled by fatigue, saw Syracuse drop the second set by a larger margin, 25-18.

Published on November 13, 2022 at 3:23 pm

Contact Tyler: [email protected] | @theTylerSchiff