Boston College volleyball hosted Syracuse on Friday in its first of a two-game series between the ACC squads.
The Eagles came into today’s game off a three set sweep in its third conference win over Duke this past Sunday.
BC (14–7, 3–6 Atlantic Coast) failed to earn its first back-to-back ACC wins, though dropping a 3–2 loss to Syracuse (12–6, 4–4 ACC) in game one of its doubleheader.
In the first set, the Eagles started out particularly aggressive, pulling away with the score and refusing to give the Orange little chance to close the gap.
Outside hitter Audrey Ross and middle blocker Anna Herrington put up especially strong numbers in the first set with six and three kills, respectively, to give BC its 25–19 win in the first set.
Immediately following BC’s first set win, Syracuse began to go on the offensive and hold steady with the lead.
The Eagles continued to make forced and unforced errors, giving the Orange more opportunity to run away with the lead, diminishing any hope of a three set sweep for BC.
Syracuse denied any chance of a comeback for BC and put up a 25–15 win in the second set over the Eagles to tie it at one-a-piece.
The Eagles needed to find a way to dominate in the third set to turn the narrative back in their favor.
Bella Ehrlich and Sofija Marjanovic pulled out crucial kills to stop the Orange from inching their way to a third set win.
The Eagles fought their way back to make it 23–22 and setter Lucy Mott tipped the ball forcing Syracuse to make an attack error and making the score 23–23. Sequoia Layne landed the block to give BC the third set win, making it 2–1.
Ross lent a hand in getting BC back to game point, clocking 14 kills going into the fourth set.
BC inched closer to game point, but Syracuse refused to let BC pull away, with a tie game at 19–19. Blocks by Marjanovic and a kill by Herrington kept BC in the game as the score alternated with a tie at 23–23.
Ross landed a kill to push the Eagles ahead to set point 25–24, but a return attack from the Orange on the next point kept them in the game. BC continued to alternate points with Syracuse until a 29–28 match point, where Syracuse’s Zharia Harris-Waddy landed a kill to ultimately win the fourth set for the Orange.
In the beginning of the fifth set, both teams started looking for any possible opportunity to get a point in its favor. The resulting back-and-forth score reflected the Eagles aggressive mentality looking for the fifth set win.
Kills by Ross, Erhlich, and Herrington contributed to pushing BC further, while kills from Syracuse hitters contributed to pushing themselves slightly ahead.
BC remained unshaken and continued to fight from a two-point deficit on Syracuse’s match point, but a kill by Gabby McLaughlin gave the Orange a 15–12 fifth set and the 3–2 game win.
