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Sparked by its middle blockers, Syracuse (13-9, 1-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) rallied to defeat Virginia Tech (7-13, 1-9 ACC) in five sets Sunday. Zharia Harris-Waddy, Mira Ledermueller, Sydnie Waller, Greta Schlichter and Veronica Sierzant combined for 20 kills and 10 block assists as the Orange won their first ACC game of the season.

The group of middle blockers endured a middling freshman season last year, going winless in ACC play. As sophomores, it’s been the same much of the season with the Orange dropping their first nine of 2024. But the second-year players were at the forefront of SU’s win over the Hokies, the groups’ first-ever ACC win together.

“I think we’re in a very unique situation with our program and our rebuild, where we can offer (playing time) to young players,” Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said. “When you’re on the court, you make experiences that are very invaluable for your development.”

Harris-Waddy led the way with a season-high 13 kills, two aces and three total blocks. Additionally, she was a reliable option for SU, which has struggled with errors recently. She had a hitting percentage of 36 percent — the second highest on the team — with only four errors in 25 attacks, as well as zero errors from the serving line. Harris-Waddy was one of only two players in the game to serve 15 or more times and not give away a point.

Harris-Waddy was fantastic down the stretch, recording a big dig that led to the point that secured set four and kept the match alive. She also had four of her 13 kills in the decisive fifth set. Two of her kills came consecutively as she helped flip the score from an 11-10 deficit to a 12-11 lead.

“I feel like this is just gonna keep pushing us forward. All we can do, all we’re gonna do is build off this and gain momentum and as the rest of the season goes on,” Harris-Waddy said.

The other middle blockers, Sydney Moore and Anastasiia Nikolnikova, were also productive for the Orange. Moore started in the first two sets and helped control, preventing the Hokies from getting into an offensive rhythm early. Moore finished with one kill, zero errors and five total blocks in only two sets.

After Ganesharatnam deployed Nikolnikova at the start of the third set, she went on to start sets four and five.

“We felt like after that first set or second set, we needed a little bit more offensive power from more than two players, and that’s why we inserted (Nikolnikova) into the lineup,” Ganesharatnam said.

The move paid off tremendously. Nikolnikova was dominant offensively on the right side of the net, recording three kills. In only three sets, she recorded three total blocks and six kills with a hitting percentage of 60 percent without recording a single error.

Syracuse’s net defense was one of the keys to its triumph as it out-blocked the Hokies 20-12. The Orange struggled in this department in their weekday loss against Virginia, but it ended up being the difference in their win over Virginia Tech.

“Against UVA, we did a good job slowing down the pins but there were times where the middle blockers went on scoring runs that really hurt us. So we wanted to kind of address that,” Ganesharatnam said. “So the team did a good job executing what we worked on in practice.”

Published on October 27, 2024 at 6:34 pm

Contact Aidan: aidan.tseng@gmail.com