All They Had: Syracuse beats Louisville in 5 sets

By Chris Venzon

Syracuse hosted Louisville at the Women’s Building this afternoon hoping to not repeat its poor performance from Friday night’s game against Notre Dame. The Orange bounced back nicely, winning a competitive match against the Cardinals, 3-2.

Louisville came into the match with a 6-9 record, having lost 4 of its last 5 games. The Cardinals are an inexperienced team, with only one senior on its roster.

Syracuse struggled again to defend outside hitting. Louisville’s sophomore outside hitter Morgan Miller had a career high 23 kills in the game.

SU was stout, however, up the middle and on the back end. ‘Cuse had 14 blocks in the game, thanks in large part to Santita Ebangwese. The sophomore middle blocker had 7 blocks, two more than the entire Louisville team.

Junior Belle Sand had her best game of the season, digging out 20 balls to keep Syracuse in the game during longer rallies.

The difference in this game was Syracuse’s consistency. SU looked like the veteran team from start to finish, never losing its composure over calls from an official, and rallying late in sets to put pressure on the Cardinals. It was a noticeable improvement from the team’s Notre Dame contest only 72 hours prior.

Sophomore setter Jalissa Trotter contributed with three timely kills in the match. She said she thinks the next step Syracuse needs to take is playing steadily from game to game, not just set to set.

“Consistency is one of the biggest things we are trying to work on,” she said. “We just had to regroup, come together, and figure out what we needed to work on the most. Once we did that, we pulled it out.”

The team is 4-12 overall, but .500 in ACC play. Syracuse visits Clemson in South Carolina on Friday at 7:00 p.m.