SU Suffers 3-1 Setback at Virginia Tech

Sunday, October 13

Blacksburg, VA

1 p.m.

Syracuse University

6-12, 1-5ACC

Virginia Tech

16-4, 4-2ACC

Syracuse

Virginia Tech

SIlvi Uattara recorded her fifth career double-double with 16 kills and 10 digs at Virginia Tech.

10/13/2013 4:32:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

Box Score | Season Statistics

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Syracuse followed up their first Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) win a 3-1 setback to Virginia Tech on Sunday, Oct. 13 at Cassell Colleseum.

"Virginia Tech is a good team. They played a very fast offense," said head coach Leonid Yelin. "They have a very good setter who connected well with the team. We had a lot of unforced errors. If you throw out the errors, it would have been a wash."

The Hokies (16-4, 4-2 ACC) took the first two sets before falling to the Orange in the third (6-12, 1-5 ACC). VT bounced back to take the final set and claim the victory (25-19, 25-15, 19-25, 25-21).

Sophomore Silvi Uattara led the Orange, posting her second double-double of the season with 16 kills and 10 digs while hitting at a clip of .333. Junior Nicolette Serratore chipped in with 13 kills. Redshirt junior Lindsay McCabe followed up her career performance with eight kills and a .500 hitting percentage along with three more blocks, including one solo.

Junior Melina Violas paced SU's defensive efforts with a game-high 15 digs and Erica Handley recorded 40 assists.

Trailing by one early in the first set, SU rattled off four straight points to secure a 6-3 lead off a pair of kills from redshirt freshman Valeriya Shaipova and McCabe. Virginia Tech responded with four straight of their own to regain the lead at 7-6. SU went on another quick four point spurt, getting a kill and ace from sophomore Gosia Wlaszczuk, but the Hokies answered back again with four more to stay on top 12-11. After the teams exchanged sideouts to push VT's lead to 15-14, the Hokies extended went on another 4-0 run to grow the lead to 23-17. Four more sideouts gave the home team the set victory.

The teams went back and forth to begin the second set. Syracuse used a 7-2 run to go up 10-7, but quickly lost the lead when Virginia Tech tallied 12 straight points to nab a 19-10 advantage behind a pair of kills and blocks from Kathryn Caine. SU closed the gap to seven at 20-13, but would get no closer as the Hokies closed out the set on a 6-2 run.

Following seven lead changes and seven ties to open the third set, SU scored four in a row for the final lead change to go up 11-8. Virginia Tech tied the set once more at 12-12, but the Orange scored nine of the next 12 for a 21-15 lead. The teams traded sideouts the rest of the way and Syracuse took the set 25-19 behind a .452 hitting percentage.

SU jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth set, with McCabe picking up two block assists. The Orange held the lead until Virginia Tech tied the score at 7-7. Trailing 9-8, the Hokies went on a 6-0 run and were in front the rest of the way. Both teams exchanged 4-1 runs with Syracuse pulling within 15-13 followed by VT extending their lead to 19-14. SU made one last push to cut their deficit to 21-19 and 23-21, but the Hokies got a pair of kills from Kennedy Bryan to end the match.

Virginia Tech received 16 kills from Bryan, who led the team. Victoria Hamsher (11 kills) and LaTasha Samson-Akpan (10) reached double-digits as well, with all three players hitting above .350. Akpan also led the Hokies at the net with four blocks while Jordan Fish's 44 assists and Megan Beckwith's 14 digs were team-highs.

The Orange continues their road swing next weekend with away trips to Maryland on Friday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. and at Pittsburgh on Sunday, Oct. 20 at 2 p.m.