Volleyball Finishes Off Road Trip with 3-1 Win Over Virginia Tech

Ryan Bridges | @RyanBridges517

CitrusTV Volleyball Beat Reporter

Syracuse N.Y. – Volleyball finished off their road trip in style by beating Virginia Tech 3-1.

Against Wake Forest on Friday, it took some time for SU to get in rhythm as they fell behind two sets to none to start the match.

That was hardly the case on Sunday though. Syracuse took a 6-1 lead to start the first set, and was up by 10 later in the set. The Orange won the first game 25-15.

The second set was the only point in the match where SU wasn’t in control. Virginia Tech stormed out to a 12-3 lead and held on to even the match at 1-1.

Syracuse’s defense started to come along in the third set. Virginia Tech had a game-high eight errors and posted a game-low in hitting percentage (0.088). This helped the Orange take the set 25-19, and take a 2-1 match lead.

In the fourth set, the Hokies kept finding a way to hang around. After a kill by Virginia Tech’s Ava Francis, SU led 23-22. However, during a Syracuse match point, Francis’ attempt at a cross-court kill was hit just a little too hard and went out of bounds, giving Syracuse the match victory.

There was no bigger reason for the Orange’s win on Sunday than Polina Shemanova. The senior led the team in kills (24) and digs (17).

She is now just 26 kills away from becoming the all-time kills leader in Syracuse Volleyball history.

In the preseason ACC coaches poll, Syracuse was projected to finish last place in the conference.

However with four games gone by, the Orange are undefeated and are third place in the conference. The only two teams ahead of them are Pittsburgh and Louisville who are both ranked inside the top 10 according to the AVCA Coaches Poll.

What makes their 4-0 ACC record even more shocking is that Syracuse walked into ACC play with the worst non-conference record out of all 15 teams in the league.

SU will look to continue their hot start in the ACC against Notre Dame and Louisville.