To cut Louisville’s four-point lead in the fourth set, Syracuse needed a 10-hit rally. 

It started with a safe serve from Berkley Hayes. Then, a diving dig from SU senior Aliah Bowllan preserved the rally. Ella Saada had to dive out of bounds toward the scorer’s table to keep an Elena Karakasi mishit alive. The Orange were scrambling. 

Several hits later, SU regained composure and won the point on a Karakasi kill. The applauding crowd in the Women’s Building rose to its feet. Though Syracuse would lose that set, the defensive performance in the comeback effort indicated a larger trend.

While the attacking play from Polina Shemanova was spectacular, as she broke the school’s single game kills record with 36, it was Syracuse’s (8-11, 5-7 Atlantic Coast) defense in its new formation that led it to five-set win over Louisville (15-7, 8-4) on Sunday to give SU a three-game winning streak. Syracuse tallied a season-high 87 digs and 11 blocks in the win.

“Going into Notre Dame,” Bowllan said, “We had the feeling we could beat them. And then coming into today we had the same mindset, just staying calm and not getting your emotions too high or too low, just being level headed.” 

Before their road trip to North Carolina a week ago, SU head coach Leonid Yelin and his staff changed the defensive formation, shifting to what assistant coach Derryk Williams called a “setter up” formation. In this new alignment, the setter now sits right behind the middle blockers, picking up any loose balls that the middles or side defenders can’t get to. 

For some of the players on Syracuse, this formation was a brand new concept, so the coaching staff had to teach them their new responsibilities on the fly. In the first game in the setter up formation, the Orange struggled to build rallies in a three-to-one set loss to North Carolina.

In the win over Notre Dame on Friday night, the Orange recorded 74 digs, as the players were starting to grasp the new formation. On Sunday, Syracuse continued that momentum. 

“We’re playing a new defense and that’s something we had to do was get adjusted to it and get comfortable with,” Bowllan said after the game. “Right now we’re getting a lot of balls up and I don’t think there’s anything we can complain about.”

Along with the growing confidence in the defensive formation change, Syracuse’s middle blockers continued to show growth in the Louisville win. Abby Casiano recorded seven kills on ten tries in the win, and her blocking combinations with both Dana Gardner and junior Yuliia Yastrub were key in stifling Louisville’s attack. 

“I think (Casiano’s) improvement is unbelievable.” Williams said. “We used her when we needed her, and that allowed Polina to take a break once in a while, along with Ella on the outside.” 

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Early in the second set, Casiano displayed her growth after Karakasi lofted a pass in the middle of the court, and Casiano raced over and jumped in the air, ready to hit the ball. But, she let the ball fly past her, freezing the Louisville middles. Saada then came right behind Gardner, and fired a ball into hole in the Louisville defense. 

“When she converts,” Williams said, “It makes our lives a lot easier because opposing middles have to wait a little longer to go outside.”

Led by the strong defense, SU won the second and third sets, but those were sandwiched by losses in the first and fourth.

Then in the fifth set, Casiano rose up again over the middle. The Cardinal defense read the play and shifted the blockers over to cover a trailing Shemanova. This time, Casiano fired the ball through the hole left by the shifted Louisville defense.

While the middle blockers and defense performed at a high level against one of the ACC’s best teams, Yelin acknowledged there is still room for improvement.

“I think our middles still have to be more involved,” Yelin said, “To make sure they don’t overwork Polina.”

Published on November 3, 2019 at 7:10 pm

Contact Nick: nleconom@syr.edu