Syracuse Drops Match to No. 3 BYU

Friday, September 7

Milwaukee, WI

6 pm

Syracuse University

2-1

Brigham Young University

7-0

Syracuse

BYU

9/7/2018 8:37:00 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Syracuse volleyball team dropped a hard fought 3-0 battle against No. 3 Brigham Young Friday night at the Milwaukee Invitational. The Orange fell by set scores 25-23, 25-20 and 25-20.

HOW IT WAS DECIDED
The two teams opened the first set in a back-and-forth battle tying the match at 8-8. The Cougars fired off an 8-2 run jumping out to a 16-10 lead. The Orange hung around with big blocks from Mariia Levanova and Santita Ebangwese but were unable to stop the hitting attack of BYU. Syracuse climbed back in at 17-14 with three-straight points that came on back-to-back kills from Ebangwese and a service ace by Polina Shemanova.

After dropping the first set 25-23, Syracuse came out strong in the second set with an 8-4 lead. BYU quickly tied it up at 9-9. The teams continued to trade points bringing the score up to 15-15 before the Cougars used a 7-2 run to take the lead. The BYU run propelled them to a 19-15 lead that Syracuse was unable to overcome.

Despite falling behind 5-1 to open the third set, the Orange hung around using four straight points to force a BYU timeout at 12-13 but were unable to take a lead.

OF NOTE
Shemanova led the Orange in kills for her third straight game as she notched 14 while also adding 12 kills. Sophomore Ella Saada added a season-high 13 while Ebangwese tied for a game-high seven blocks.

UP NEXT
The Orange will look to rebound against two tough opponents in No. 10 USC and No. 25 Marquette. Syracuse takes on USC at 3 p.m. Saturday before facing host, Marquette in a 1 p.m. contest Sunday afternoon.