Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

During its morning practice Tuesday, Syracuse focused on one specific tactic.

“We wanted to make sure we focused on the basics — our serve and our serve receive,” SU head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam said. “We really wanted to serve aggressively.”

But to do that, a team must take risks and try new techniques. Whether it means igniting more power on the ball, placing it in different areas of the court or lofting it to catch an opponent off guard, succeeding in a service is difficult. The best way to do it? Be patient.

As a result of the chances a squad takes to improve its serve, it’s likely to mess up along the way. Specifically, an uptick in service errors is expected. The most service errors Syracuse recorded this campaign were against Rider, totalling 10.

At the same time, a successful serve could occur. In the victory versus the Broncs, the Orange also grinded out a then-season-high 10 service aces. When SU accrues a large quantity of service errors, it’s also likely to score a ton of aces. That’s exactly what it did Saturday.

Syracuse (8-2, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) posted a season-high 13 service aces en route to conquering St. John’s (4-9, 0-0 Big East) in five sets Saturday. It was the most the Orange had relied on the serve all year. In fact, in Ganesharatnam’s time as their head coach, they’d only hit the 13-ace threshold three times before Saturday.

SU ramped up its aggression halfway through the first set when Gabriella McLaughlin sought to glide the ball just barely over the net when knotted at nine. Her service sailed through the air and smacked against the net on Syracuse’s side.

A few points later, Reese Teves overshot her serve out of bounds into the blue paint in front of the Red Storm’s bench. Then, Piper Willinger got unlucky on her service, as the ball teetered the top of the netting for three seconds before landing on the Orange’s side of the court.

The first set was SU’s low point of the match, especially when it came to serving. Its ace-to-service error ratio was below one. Syracuse simply didn’t put much effort into throwing St. John’s off. Its attacks weren’t working. It recorded a 0% attack percentage, the lowest mark it ended a set with this season.

Though when Skylar George subbed in for Marie Laurio at outside hitter between the first and second sets, the Orange completely flipped their serving philosophy.

The change? Surprise the Red Storm with powerful serves early in the set to get out to a strong start. SU struggled in the first set, as it trailed 5-1 at one point, and it didn’t want to enter that predicament again.

“We talk about it a lot because sometimes we struggle with it, but I think we really came together and were like, ‘We have to push to first to five, first to 10.’ And I think that really helped us a lot in that second set,” George said.

Ahead 7-2, George served the ball to a picture-perfect spot on the tip of St. John’s back-left corner. It was a microcosm of what was to come later on in the match.

Syracuse tallied four service aces, but it also finished with four service errors in a 25-17 second-set victory, which was a match-high for a single set. Still, it stayed patient with its aggressive intuitions, and it paid off.

“We had 13 aces to 11 errors. That’s a really good ratio. I thought we were very aggressive in that area,” Ganesharatnam said. “That really gave us a big advantage.”

However, the Orange abandoned the tactic in the third set, which they dropped 25-23. They failed to record a single ace, let alone a single service error. The ideas that worked well evaporated.

In the fourth frame, SU picked up where it left off in the second set to maneuver its way back into the match. McLaughlin set the tone to help Syracuse assert itself in the driver’s seat early when her serve hit the tape of the netting and bounced, leaving Martina Capponcelli and Rashanny Solano Smith in the dust. McLaughlin delivered another ace later in the frame to tie her season-high.

“Before the game, Coach was talking about how every time that we got an ace, they’re gonna throw shirts out. So I was trying to get those shirts out there,” McLaughlin said.

Zharia Harris-Waddy ensured two more people would receive shirts later in the set when she recorded back-to-back service aces. By that point, after the Orange took the frame 25-13, the Red Storm were flabbergasted by Syracuse’s serving prowess. It totaled six aces throughout the set, marking a season-high.

St. John’s had no answers for SU in the do-or-die fifth set, which featured another George ace en route to victory. Like McLaughlin, she also tied her season-high in the category.

Syracuse may not have recorded 13 service aces in the prettiest way, but that’s the expectation with taking chances on serves.

“We know if you take a risk, you’re going to have some errors. As long as they’re good errors, we’re completely fine with that,” Ganesharatnam said.

Published on September 20, 2025 at 11:05 pm
jaglick@syr.edu | @jason_glick