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Syracuse and North Carolina entered Friday’s match in a much better place than expected before the season. In the ACC preseason poll, North Carolina was voted to finish in the bottom half of the ACC, while SU was slated to finish dead last.

The only loss between the two squads was when UNC traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, falling 3-0 to South Carolina. SU was riding high after beating Iowa State and Cornell last weekend for its 11th and 12th straight wins. SU had momentum heading into its first conference game in Chapel Hill, though at the beginning of the first set, it quickly waned.

North Carolina (9-1,1-0 ACC) comfortably defeated Syracuse (12-1, 0-1 ACC) in a 3-0 sweep to hand the Orange their first loss of the season. The defeat was also SU’s 19th straight conference loss.

Kills from Sydney Moore and Anastasiia Nikolnikova helped the Orange open up to a 4-1 lead in the first set. The Tar Heels quickly took control of the match with kills from Chelsea Thorpe and Safi Hampton to tie the game at six.

Thorpe and Hampton combined for 19 kills, both recording above a .250 hitting percentage. The Tar Heels hit at a .414 clip in the first set, over 60% better than their average hitting percentage coming into the first ACC match (.249).

UNC and SU traded service errors with the score at 9-8 in favor of North Carolina. Back-to-back attacking errors from Klara Zarnovicka opened up the lead to four. Kills from Alexis Engelbrecht and Thorpe extended UNC’s lead to 15-10.

A Mabrey Shaffmaster service ace forced head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam to call a timeout with his team down seven. Shaffmaster, who is fourth in the ACC in service aces, recorded four service aces and six kills in the match.

The Orange only scored 37 digs, their tied-third lowest of the season. SU registered a .012 hitting percentage in Chapel Hill, a 95% decrease compared to its average hitting percentage this season.

After the timeout, Zarnovicka got hurt and did not return. Sara Wasiakowska, who didn’t play in the Syracuse Invitational because of an injury, returned and played all three sets, failing to register a kill in six attempts.

Nikolnikova scored one of her team-high six kills after the injury timeout to reduce the lead to 18-11. Ava Palm, who ranks fourth in the ACC in kills (160), only scored five at a .056 clip in the losing effort.

An Emani’ Foster kill sealed the first-set victory for the Tar Heels at 25-14.

North Carolina carried its dominance from the first set and controlled the second, jumping out to an early 7-2 lead, highlighted by Hampton’s seventh kill of the match.

A Palm kill cut down the lead to four at 9-5, but a 7-1 run put North Carolina in the driving seat at 16-6, forcing Ganesharatnam to call his second timeout of the set.

The Orange played both Veronica Sierzant and Mira Ledermueller in the second set. The sophomore setters rotated for each other in the nonconference games, but Ganesharatanam elected to use both in a 6-2 system for the set.

Back-to-back blocks from the Tar Heels lengthened the lead to 21-6. The Orange, third in the ACC in blocks (119.5), didn’t register their first block until North Carolina’s set point, when Wasiakowska and Nikolnikova combined for one. A Ledermueller service error left the Orange with their worst offensive point performance of the season, only scoring nine points.

One of the few positives of the match was Nikki Shimao’s debut. Shimao, a graduate transfer student from Temple, has not played a minute since suffering a preseason injury. Shortly after entering, Shimao produced a diving dig that led to an SU block and point.

The Orange racked up their blocks in the third set, scoring three in a row to lead 6-4. A Sierzant kill set up by a dig from Skylar George put the Orange in a 7-5 lead. UNC’s seventh ace of the night from Jackie Taylor gave the Tar Heels the lead at 9-8.

A Maddy May service error gave Syracuse a two-point lead going into a media timeout. After the pause, a slide attack from Nikolnikova gave Syracuse its biggest lead of the night at 17-14.

The Tar Heels turned the gas back on, tying the set 20-20 after a George attacking error. UNC’s tenth attacking error of the set gave SU a 22-20 lead, forcing head coach Mike Schall to call a timeout.

The timeout sparked UNC into a 5-0 run that claimed the Tar Heels’ first ACC victory of the season.

Published on September 28, 2024 at 12:27 am

Contact Quinn: qdpostma@syr.edu