Injury, illness and bad luck plagued the Syracuse volleyball team last weekend. Injured shoulders, runny noses and canceled flights caught up with Syracuse on the court.

The Orangewomen were swept, 3-0, by both Virginia Tech, on Friday, and Miami, on Sunday, in the final two matches of the season. And, unlike the Notre Dame match on Nov. 9 which SU lost by the same score, these losses weren’t caused by the overpowering strength of the opposition.

“The homecourt advantage was very obvious and huge,” SU head coach Jing Pu said. “And these kinds of travel difficulties cause fatigue and put a disadvantage on the visiting team.”

Indeed, the ailing Syracuse squad was significantly disadvantaged as it tried to battle a cold that spread through the team during the road trip. Several sick players carried tissue boxes with them all weekend, and trainers passed out Tylenol, Pu said.

Meanwhile, two starters were hampered by shoulder injuries. Senior Abby Van Mater continued to nurse an injury that sidelined her for much of the Notre Dame match. A similar injury forced Kristen Conway to sit out all of the Miami match and most of the Tech match.

Conway, a freshman, felt the physical stress of collegiate athletics, assistant coach Alexis Dankulic said.

“In the fall, as freshmen, they don’t get a lot of our weight training,” Dankulic said. “They’ll train with our conditioning staff in the spring, and (Conway) shouldn’t have that problem again.”

This was also the first time that Syracuse has traveled to Virginia Tech and Miami since those teams joined the Big East. The early mornings and long flights didn’t make the Orangewomen any healthier.

“Since those teams are new in the Big East in volleyball,” Pu said, “it was our first trip to these two schools. And it was not fun.”

“It was the first time that anybody on our team had to make this kind of trip,” Dankulic said. “All the other schools have to do it when they come play us. They fly on Friday to play us and then they go play Notre Dame, and we’ve never had to do that.”

Flight delays on the way from Virginia to Miami compounded the effects of injury and sickness. The Orangewomen woke up to catch a 7 a.m. flight on Sunday, but a cancellation forced them to wait at the airport for several hours to catch the next plane. By the time they arrived in Miami, the Orangewomen had missed a practice session and barely made it in time for the match.

And although they had played better at Miami than at Virginia Tech, it’s still a match that they’d probably rather forget.

“It isn’t because the girls weren’t trying — things just weren’t clicking for us,” Dankulic said. “There was not one specific person, play or thing that was going bad. It just wasn’t clicking together.

“Against Miami, I think we played really well. We just had a few random points where we let them get ahead.”

But now that Syracuse has experienced the rigors of a long road trip, the Orangewomen will be better prepared when they have to do it again next time. They can be thankful, Dankulic said, that they don’t have to endure this type of thing more often.

“We’re just lucky that we’re not three hours away from conference opponents, because if we had to do that every weekend, it’s just tough,” she said. “I’m glad it was our last trip.”

Published on November 19, 2002 at 12:00 pm