Boston College volleyball faced off against Syracuse Sunday for the second time this season, looking to come out on top after a hard-fought, five-set loss on Sept. 21.
Led by a dominant performance from senior Silvia Ianeselli, the Eagles (18–12, 6–10 Atlantic Coast) dominated Syracuse (11–15, 7–9) in three sets on BC’s home court.
The set scores of the match were 25–23, 25–18, and 25–22.
And after a five-set loss to Duke just two days prior, head coach Jason Kennedy had a heartfelt message for his team heading into Sunday’s game.
“I told them we have to get back to doing what we do,” Kennedy said. “We’ve played pretty well in this building, and I think that showed. I think we finished with eight aces on six errors—that’s a pretty solid statline. I think what was the difference really in this match was our ability to win the service line.”
Grace Penn and Silvia Ianesseli each tallied four aces for the Eagles.
The Eagles did not waste any time, taking an early 6–3 lead in the first set. The Orange rallied back with seven straight points. Julia Haggerty, however, snapped the streak with a strong kill following a BC timeout.
This timeout proved to be effective, as the Eagles went on a 9–2 run of their own, taking a 15–12 lead. After going back and forth for the rest of the set, the Eagles took command, taking the first set following a kill from Jenna Pollock.
Pollock led the Eagles with four kills in the first set.
The Eagles carried their momentum into the second set, and a powerful kill from Kate Brennan gave the Eagles a 14–9 lead. Ianeselli laid the hammer down with her sixth kill of the match to put the Eagles up 24–17, and an Orange service error gave the second set to the Eagles.
“[Ianeselli] understood the offense,” Kennedy said. “She knows that we want to play fast. She was up on time. She passed pretty well. … She took advantage of a little bit of a smaller block on that side, and we were able to exploit it.”
The Eagles dominated the Orange with a team hit percentage of .367 in the set.
The Orange were not going down without a fight, though, and they tied the game up at nine apiece at the beginning of the third set. Once again, the Eagles found a spark in Ianeselli, who recorded two major kills to help the Eagles take and grow their lead.
The Eagles began to pull away as the set continued, and a kill by Katrina Jenson, forced Syracuse to take a timeout down 20–17. The Orange tied the game up at 20, but the Eagles rallied once again with none other than Ianeselli leading the team with six kills in the set.
Another service error against the Orange sealed the Eagles’ sweep.
Ianeselli tallied 12 total kills with a hit percentage of .409 and seven digs.
“I saw us get comfortable again in this building,” Kennedy said. “We’ve played pretty well here—I think we’ve probably won six or seven of these matches in this building. We want to finish strong next week. We’ve just got the one to focus on in Virginia Tech, and then we’ll worry about what’s after that, but we’re fortunate to be at home.”
