Syracuse sweeps Le Moyne, stays undefeated in Salt City Classic
Syracuse extended its season-opening winning streak to three with its win over Le Moyne on Sunday as it swept the Salt City Classic. Sean Aldridge | Contributing Photographer
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There’s a saying that once is an accident, twice is a coincidence and thrice is a pattern.
This was the case for Syracuse volleyball in 2024’s Salt City Classic. There was no guarantee it would sweep its three opponents, let alone win a match.
In 2023, the Orange went winless in their first three-game tournament of the season, getting swept in all three sets of the UAlbany Invitational. SU lost two of its 10 nonconference matches to kick off the campaign, and it was swept in all eight of its losses.
But in 2024’s Salt City Classic, it took down NJIT, Lafayette and Canisius and only dropped one set. Now, winning games in this tournament has become the expectation. There were no accidents or coincidences. The pattern of victories was conjectured before the tournament started.
The Orange followed through with these presuppositions in 2025 in Friday’s and Saturday’s matchups with Niagara and Rider and did it again on Sunday.
Syracuse (3-0, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) swept Le Moyne (1-2, 0-0 Northeast) 3-0 Sunday in an offensive masterclass. The contest featured two sets in which the Orange held the Dolphins under 10 points. SU’s neighboring school couldn’t give it more of a run for its money after the Dolphins beat Niagara, whom Syracuse swept Friday, on Saturday in five sets.
The demolition didn’t even start on the first point. Dolphins opposite hitter Branwyn Lupton took a volley from setter Haley Gerken that the Orange couldn’t control. But from that point on, it was all Syracuse.
It initiated a four-point streak, and on the fifth point, outside hitter Skylar George connected on a kill that ricocheted off the opposite side of the net and into the ground.
George, who was the Orange’s closer Friday and Saturday, got the start and played the entire game. The redshirt sophomore finished with nine kills on 24 attacks. Her attack percentage on Sunday nearly quintupled her mark in 2024.
As a team, SU was vicious at the net, connecting on 34.1% of its total attacks. Its mean percentage across Friday and Saturday was 22.6%. A major reason as to why this mark increased was because Syracuse addressed finesse rather than power in its spikes.
“We wanted to change up the tempo a little bit. Against Rider, we were a little bit one-dimensional,” head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said. “We knew Le Moyne’s defense is set, but they’re not as good in movement as they are if the ball comes straight to them.”
The finesse showed early on, especially with Nevada transfer Tehya Maeva. On the Orange’s ninth point of the first set, she threaded the needle on a kill to the left-middle side of the court. Three Syracuse points later, Maeva drew all six Dolphins to her right side and lofted a ball to the left with a soft touch.
On the next point, fellow captain and Nevada transfer Gabriella McLaughlin used her wrist to hit a shallow ball where no Le Moyne player was positioned.
The Dolphins’ lack of communication was evident throughout the day, especially during the first set. They surrendered nine of SU’s 25 points during the frame on attack errors. Syracuse fittingly took the set 25-9 off an attack error from middle hitter Nil Ezgi Tasdelen.
The second set was a much different story, though, as SU was responsible for more attack errors with five to Le Moyne’s three.
“I think they picked up their defense and they saw, there’s different things that we were doing, so I think we had to adjust to that,” Syracuse middle blocker Soana Lea’ea said.
The Dolphins were resilient and fixed many of their mistakes, but the one constant was the lack of communication. Late in the frame, outside hitter Jordyn Hamlin sent a volley to Lupton, who gave a shaky set to outside hitter Nina Salas, who whiffed at the ball. The play made the score 22-18, after which the Orange never looked back and also took the next three points.
The third set, meanwhile, was akin to the first one. Le Moyne delivered its small scare early on as Lupton drew five of SU’s players to the ball, with McLaughlin as the only Orange hanging back.
But from that point on, Syracuse’s masterclass continued. George won the third point with a spike that made both Hamlin and libero Brooke Menke do splits. The Utah transfer was fired up and embraced her teammates afterward.
“We’ve been working on our mindset a lot recently, coming in strong and trying to build a good culture in the locker room and translating that onto the court,” setter Piper Willinger said. “I think it worked today.”
McLaughlin, SU’s kills leader this season, delivered in the final moments. She anchored a gorgeous curve on the 21st point that Le Moyne outside hitter Jazmyn Rodriguez couldn’t control. The senior caught a lob from Willinger to earn a crosscourt kill for the penultimate point and scored an ace to win the set 25-8 and complete the sweep.
Sunday’s victory provides SU a strong cushion before conference play, similar to last season. Still, it will be about maintaining that momentum entering ACC matches.
“The way we have established our nonconference schedule, we’re going to get tested every weekend,” Ganersharatnam said. “The goal is to compete against the teams in the ACC and we have not given up on that thought. We’re just on track to be in that position.”
