Syracuse Volleyball Suffers First Home Loss to Colgate

Entering Saturday’s match with Colgate (4-5, 0-0 Patriot League), Syracuse volleyball (6-2, 0-0 ACC) had one thing on its mind: revenge. However, it was not meant to be, as the Orange fell to the Raiders 3-1 for the second time in two days.

SU head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said it wasn’t a disappointing performance from his players, but rather from his fans.

“My message to the fans is that they shouldn’t get outlasted by the Colgate fans,” Ganesharatnam said. “You know, this is Syracuse, and we have a handful of Colgate fans, and they were louder than the entire gym.”

“This team is young. This team is new. Even when we’re down 7-1 in the first set, they didn’t put their head down. We’re working actively to find solutions to get back in that set and find a way to compete.”

“We want the crowd to get behind this team….This crowd can make a huge difference….This crowd can help this team. They should get off the phone and get into the match, and make some noise.”

Following his postgame press conference, Ganesharatnam interrupted Freshman Marie Laurio’s response on the fans in the building. From off to the side, he compared the environment of the Women’s Building on Saturday to that of Colgate’s home gym, which SU played in on Friday.

“[Colgate] had the band in the gym. 15 people. And guess what? Colgate played Syracuse in football [Friday night]. And they had 15 people [in their band at the game]. I have not seen our band in two years in our gym….What are they doing? We have more than one team to support.”

The SU home crowd has a chance to respond to Ganesharatnam’s comments when Syracuse meets Siena on Friday at 6 p.m.

For updates on that match and the remainder of the Syracuse Volleyball season, follow @ryancroke_ and @CitrusTVSports on X/Twitter.