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With the first set tied at 23 apiece, Campbell’s Maddie Converse hit the penultimate serve of the set. It ended with Lauren Woodford assisting a kill by Polina Shemanova to give the Orange a one-point lead. Then, Woodford assisted Naomi Franco on a kill of her own to conclude the set and give Syracuse a 1-0 lead. 

That marked the beginning of a mostly-dominant performance by the Orange in their season opener as they defeated Campbell 3-1 to begin the Charlotte Invitational. 

The Orange carried their momentum from the first set into the second one, overcoming the Fighting Camels 25-18 as Franco once again had the set-clinching kill. Through two sets, Shemanova led the Orange with ten kills while Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk tailed right behind her with nine. Lailah Green led the Fighting Camels with seven kills and Chloe Cook was right behind her with six.

Syracuse was unable to put the match away in the third set as Campbell avoided a sweep, getting kills from five different players during the set, which ended with a 25-19 tally. The Orange committed eight attack errors during the set, double the amount they produced in any other individual set. 

But Syracuse bounced back in the fourth set en route to the win. Tied at 12, the Orange won five of the next six points — three of which were assisted by Riley Hoffman — to give themselves a formidable cushion. They would hang onto that lead for the remainder of the set, which ended up concluding with a 25-20 score to end the match. 

Shemanova — the game’s top scorer with 20.5 points — led the Orange with 18 kills on the day, while Lokhmanchuk contributed 16 and Raina Hughes had 10. Woodford led the team with 26 assists in a setting role that was left vacant after the transfer of Elena Karakasi. Hoffman also tallied 18 assists as the only other Syracuse player in double-digits. 

Campbell was led by Green and Melody Paige, the only Fighting Camels to record 10 or more kills, with 11 and 10, respectively. Green and Chloe Cook ranked atop Campbell’s scoring board with 12.5 points apiece, while Emily Mitter’s 18 assists were a team-high. 

Syracuse was able to take such strong control of the match largely due to an abundance of opportunities on the attack. The team finished with 157 total attempts, which would have been the Orange’s second-highest mark of last season behind the 196 they recorded in a five-set loss to Florida State in October. Even with an average efficiency of a .255 hitting percentage, earning so many attempts allowed Syracuse to coast to a sweat-free victory.

The Charlotte Invitational continue Saturday when Syracuse plays a doubleheader against Wofford and Charlotte. The match against Wofford is set to begin at 10 a.m. while the Charlotte contest is slated for 7 p.m. It will mark Syracuse’s first-ever match against Wofford, whereas the Orange and 49ers have met once before — in 2001, when Charlotte took home the win.

Published on August 26, 2022 at 3:36 pm

Contact Spencer: spgoldst@syr.edu