VB : Morton saves her best for conference play
The Rutgers volleyball team was one point away from being swept in the third game of their Big East opener against Syracuse. With the score 30-29 in favor of SU, the Scarlet Knights still had a reasonable chance to win the game and force a fourth one.
Then, Syracuse sophomore Sarah Morton stepped on the court. The game was all but over.
Morton ended the game on the next point, delivering the final kill of the match to lead Syracuse to a 3-0 sweep over the Scarlet Knights Friday night at Manley Field House. Morton controlled the match against Rutgers, recording 15 kills along with six blocks.
‘She totally owned the net tonight, offensively, defensively with the blocking, she had a good game,’ SU assistant head coach Carol LaMarche said. ‘We were impressed with the way she was playing tonight.’
From the opening serve, Morton was a force. The SU middle blocker was 11 for 12 in attacks through the first two games for a .917 hitting percentage, and despite rotating in during the last game, she still managed to get down four kills, including the match winner. Morton finished with a .737 hitting percentage, just short of her career high.
On the defensive side of the net, Morton added four solo blocks along with two assisted blocks. Morton’s four solo blocks were just one short of her career-high.
Morton, who described her performance as ‘all right,’ said she was just excited to start Big East games.
‘I felt that I was really energized and I really was excited to come out and start Big East,’ Morton said. ‘I really wanted to start with a positive attitude going into Big East and to come out and hit as hard as I can and try to be as big as I am on the net and really put my mentality into Big East.’
Morton’s play not only dismantled any game plan Rutgers had but also helped pick up her teammates and set the tone for Syracuse. In the third game, Morton entered the game with the Orange leading, 9-8. When Morton left, the Orange held a comfortable 17-12 lead.
‘Sarah’s a very dominating player,’ SU junior outside hitter Emily Kaier said. ‘She always sets the tone with big plays, big blocks, big kills, which helps motivate everybody else to play better. Our first Big East game, we really have to set the tone and have a strong game, and I know she had great stats tonight. She really helped everyone pick up their level a little bit. We feed off of her when she’s playing well.’
Although Morton helped her team pick up its level of play, Morton credited her teammates for her own success. Morton said she would have not been able to get kills without quality sets from her fellow players
The good sets allowed Morton to have a great night laying down kills, and even made her coaches revel in her stats. LaMarche explained how for a middle blocker, a kill percentage of 0.25 or 0.3 is good, and for her to have a kill percentage of 0.74 was great.
‘Everything she touched was a point,’ LaMarche said. ‘We were sitting there going ‘Another kill, she’s six for seven, seven for eight, eight for nine.’ She was just on fire.’
