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Polina Shemanova rose up to the ball off of a set from Elena Karakasi and made direct contact with it, producing a sound that echoed in the minimally crowded gym for a 12:00 p.m. Friday game against North Carolina State.

Being down 2-1 sets and 13-14 in the middle of the fourth set, every point was increasingly dire and every mistake was costly. Shemanova’s attack flew over the Wolfpack frontline but kept on going past the defense and didn’t look like it would stop. Eventually, it hit the ground way past the in-bounds line on the court, and Syracuse conceded another point.

Despite finishing with a team-high 15 kills, Shemanova’s struggles in the afternoon represented the team as a whole. Syracuse (14-5, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) dropped its third straight match to NC State (10-8, 4-3 ACC) due to team disconnect throughout the final three sets.

Syracuse had a promising start to the game and jumped out to a 1-0 lead after taking advantage of NC State’s errors in the first set. The Wolfpack jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead but would struggle to play clean in the latter half of the set. To recover from going down 3-0, it would take a 3-0 run from Syracuse to bounce back. The run started with a double touch on NC State that wasn’t immediately called, which resulted in head coach Leonid Yelin getting upset with the line judge.

The ball-handling error was soon recognized, and the Orange notched their second point of the game. Naomi Franco and Abby Casiano were able to alter an attack with a block against the NC State frontline and then would eventually watch as NC State’s Kristen McDaniel dove for the ball trying to set up an attack. Casiano earned another block the next rally, this time joined by Marina Markova — both showed energy after only trailing 5-4.

A few rallies later, Shemanova earned three kills in a span of six rallies to help Syracuse take a 9-7 lead. The outside hitter looked sharp and finished with seven kills and no errors in the first set.

“We took advantage of their errors,” Yelin said about the first set.

The rest of the set was tightly contested with four lead changes and the lead never extending beyond three for either team. To end the set, Karakasi lightly set the ball right over the middle of the net to Casiano, who was loudly calling for the ball. Casiano retracted her arm back and hit a fast and low striking ball that was untouched by NC State, giving the Orange a 1-0 lead.

In the second set, the tides turned and Syracuse found itself playing a more composed NC State team. Syracuse jumped out to a 5-3 lead, but NC State went on an 8-1 run before Yelin was forced to call a timeout. In that run, Shemanova was met by two Wolfpack frontline players who absorbed her powerful spike, and in the next play, she couldn’t take advantage of an on-target set from Karakasi and hit the ball too far.

Shemanova didn’t use her top-spin-style serve throughout the day. While she and the Orange kept their service errors to four on the day, eight fewer than NC State, the team only finished with three aces.

“I feel like our serve wasn’t that aggressive today,” Shemanova said. “We didn’t have that many aces. We didn’t have that many errors. I don’t know if it’s better to have (fewer) errors or more aces.”

After the timeout, Syracuse regrouped and caught up to NC State due to four straight errors from the Wolfpack, tying the match at 13 each. The next play would be the difference maker of the set when NC State recovered after Izzy Plummer and Markova attempted to get a block. Taylor Rowland returned the ball back over to Syracuse with a hard-hitting spike. Shemanova didn’t fully control the ball on her bump, and Karakasi couldn’t keep it alive as it headed out of bounds.

For the rest of the set, the two teams traded kills until NC State received two straight points off of a Syracuse attack error and uncontested kill points to win the set 25-22 and tie it up at 1-1 overall.

“In the second set, for example, I think we continued to play in the first state, speed and energy of the first set,” Markova said. “But NC State probably played up and pushed more.”

Syracuse’s struggles became even more evident in the third set. The team had a .086 hitting percentage and had four more total errors than the Wolfpack did. There were several disconnects between the blockers, which resulted in harder balls for libero Lauren Hogan to settle.

In the third set, NC State jumped to a 4-0 lead and never looked back as a result of Jade Parchment and Rowland’s combined 10 kills. The two finished with a combined 37 kills. The lead stretched to as high as eight, and the Wolfpack ended up winning 25-17.

Syracuse showed adjustments in the fourth set and jumped to a quick 2-0 lead off of a kill from freshman Diana Akopova, who finished with a career-high nine kills in the absence of Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk.

Syracuse maintained the lead until the score was 10-8 and forced an NC State timeout. Different from the first set, however, the Wolfpack were able to adjust accordingly and came out with two straight kills to tie the game up.

Even though she finished with a team-high 15 kills in the match, Shemanova struggled throughout the fourth period and notched five attack errors to contribute to a team .100 hitting percentage that allowed NC State to jump to a three-point lead. The Wolfpack generated higher percentage sets and attacks the rest of the set and finished with a .250 hitting percentage to give them the edge.

In the final rally, Shemanova attempted a spike against Melissa Evans but was met with force. At first, the line judge signaled the point to Syracuse, but quickly the main judge overturned the call, and Shemanova and Syracuse could only stare in frustration after the loss.

Published on October 15, 2021 at 4:35 pm

Contact Adam: amccaffe@syr.edu