The Syracuse volleyball team found a rhythm this weekend. But it wasn’t one the Orangewomen hope to repeat.

It went like this: fall behind early, mount a confidence-building comeback, fall behind again and never recover.

That formula was the story of Syracuse’s weekend, as the Orangewomen dropped matches to Big East opponents St. John’s and Connecticut.

In each game, the Syracuse offense sputtered early, only to pick up the pace for the last few points of each game. But SU’s slow starts kept it perpetually fighting for a come-from-behind win — which never happened.

“I’d look up and the score is 0-0,” Syracuse co-captain Christen Casey said, “and next thing you know it’s 0-5.”

Such was the case in Syracuse’s Big East opener against St. John’s on Friday, a 3-1 loss.

Syracuse fell behind early in the first game, but kept it close until St. John’s finished with a 30-27 victory. The Orangewomen answered back with a win in the second game, also by a slim three-point margin, only to fall in the third game to the Red Storm by the same score.

Despite outstanding individual performances and short spurts of intensity, the Syracuse offense never produced enough scoring to complete a comeback.

“Even though everyone on the team is so positive and everything,” freshman Kristen Conway said, “I think mentally we tend to lose our grip.”

In Sunday’s game, Connecticut made short work of Syracuse, winning three consecutive games and holding the lead for nearly the entire match.

The Syracuse offense again had trouble scoring from the outset of each game, but showed glimmers of hope as the games progressed. In the last two games, Syracuse started slow and climbed back within a few points before succumbing to a dominant UConn attack.

Said SU assistant coach Alexis Dankulic: “It’s just about coming out there and passing well and running a good offense to begin with.”

Dankulic agreed that the team needed to show more offensive strength early in the game, but also pointed to the strength of this weekend’s Big East opponents.

“They jumped a little bit higher and hit a little bit harder than what we knew,” Dankulic said. “And that was the difference.”

They jumped a little earlier, too, and Syracuse spent the whole weekend in a hole just trying to recover.

“We just had some crucial errors at crucial times,” said Conway. “Once we figure those out, we’ll be fine.”

Published on September 29, 2002 at 12:00 pm