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After Friday’s loss to Virginia Tech, SU head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said the Orange did a poor job managing runs. Two days later, although there was some improvement, Syracuse (2-14, 0-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) still had trouble staving off runs from the opposition in its 3-1 loss to Wake Forest (13-4, 4-2 Atlantic Coast Conference).

“I think overall, we did a better job than on Friday,” Ganeshartnam said. “Wake Forest did go on a run in the last five points of the (last) set. I think they performed really well. They executed really well.”

The Demon Deacons had 14 instances throughout the match where they scored three or more consecutive points. In previous matches, many of the opposing team’s runs would be spurred by Syracuse miscues. Against Wake Forest, SU made its opponent earn its points, but the Demon Deacons were up to the challenge.

Freshman Ava Carney led the contest with 18 kills. Outside hitter Ashley Slater also reached double-digit kills with 12 on a 71% hitting percentage. The two accounted for half of Wake Forest’s kills. Despite Carney and Slater’s performances, Ganesharatnam was optimistic about his defense.

“I think the fact that only two people on Wake Forest’s offense had these numbers is a credit to how good our defense was,” Ganesharatnam said. “It’s not by accident that we limit the positive production numbers to two players.”

To start the contest, Syracuse limited runs. In the first set, the Orange only allowed the Demon Deacons to go on runs of three points or more twice. SU itself scored three straight points on four separate occasions.

“We’ve proven to us and to everybody today that we can compete,” Ganesharatnam said. “I mean, Wake Forest is in the top half of this conference. Arguably, you can even make the argument that it’s right now the best conference in the country.”

After the first set, SU began to unravel. Wake Forest went on two 3-0 runs en route to winning the second set after the score was tied 16-16.

The third set saw SU up early, but it ran out of gas. The Demon Deacons went on 4-0 runs three separate times in the set. In the final section of play, Wake Forest went on two 3-0 runs as well as a game-ending 5-0 run.

Ganesharatnam said SU’s lack of depth due to injury has made it difficult to stave off late runs.

“It’s hard to find that extra gear late in sets,” Ganesharatnam said. “We only had eight players until this weekend. Now we have nine (which) gives us one more option. But we don’t have the luxury Wake Forest has where if somebody is going through a difficult phase to take them out, give them a breather, having somebody else come in in their natural position.”

Published on October 8, 2023 at 7:08 pm