ORLANDO, Fla. – Syracuse Volleyball took down North Florida in straight-sets (27-25, 25-17, 25-23) on Saturday afternoon in its final match of the UCF Challenge.
“Today we did what we needed to do,” said head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam. “We stayed together, played together, and the team was consistent throughout the entire matchup. Our hitting and attacking game was excellent, and our setting and blocking game excelled today as well. All of these things led to the right outcome today and it was a great team win.”
As a team Syracuse (3-3,0-0 ACC) led North Florida (1-4,0-0 ASUN) in points (61-49), kills (46-39), aces (7-6), blocks (8-4), and assists (43-33). The Ospreys had the most digs in the matchup with 41, compared to 35 from the Orange. ‘Cuse also paced the matchup with a .359% hitting clip on the day.
The Orange set the tone early in the first set by starting off with a 3-0 lead, which was maintained until the Ospreys tied it up 8-8. Points were traded back and forth nine times before the Orange scored the final two points to take set one, 27-25. In set two the ‘Cuse jumped out to a 5-1 advantage and never relinquished the lead. The Orange closed out the set by a margin of eight points, with the final two kills coming from Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk and Bre Walp for the match point, 25-17. Syracuse only trailed for the first two points of set three, leading the remainder of the way and capturing the eventual sweep, 25-23.
Lohkmanchuck had a team-high…
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