Syracuse notches 1st ACC sweep in 3 years with win over Duke
Syracuse earned its first ACC sweep since head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam’s first season in its victory over Duke Friday. Kaylynn Green | Contributing Photographer
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.
Friday has been Syracuse’s day this season. The Orange entered their contest with Duke 6-1 overall and undefeated in Atlantic Coast Conference play on the penultimate day of the week. Meanwhile, their three conference losses came on Sundays.
SU’s like goldfish — the team has a short-term memory. It bounces back quickly and doesn’t cope with its defeats. The Orange’s longest losing streak in conference matches this season is one. In 2024, after going 12-0 in nonconference matches, Syracuse had losing streaks of nine, three and five.
An opportunity against a struggling Blue Devils squad could let SU back in the win column and continue its prowess on Fridays.
Syracuse (12-5, 4-3 Atlantic Coast) did just that, comfortably sweeping Duke (5-13, 2-5 ACC). It earned its first conference sweep since Oct. 21, 2022. The accomplishment was a testament to head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam’s trust in the process in his rebuild, as the victory thrust SU to its most promising point in the last three seasons.
“It really shows how hard it is to compete in this conference,” Ganesharatnam said. “Duke has a lot of ability, but it certainly feels good that we were able to win in three sets. It’s definitely a testimony to our mental focus.
To earn a sweep, the start of a match is most crucial, and Syracuse maintained strong focus early. It only took one serve-receive for the Orange to get on the board, as Soana Lea’ea pelted a ball at Olivia Wayne to enter the points column.
Still, the Blue Devils bent but didn’t break. The back-and-forth outing continued for a significant chunk of the frame. Things didn’t look too hot for Syracuse when Wayne put the volleyball out of reach for Gabriella McLaughlin to control, tying the set at seven apiece.
A few points later, the Orange surrendered back-to-back kills to Taylor Williams, and there was no guarantee they’d respond.
Yet, they did. After trailing 10-9, SU embarked on an 11-4 run, situating itself to close out the set cleanly. All it took was a cross-court bullet from Skylar George to earn the first set victory by three points.
But one set win isn’t anything to celebrate about. The journey is still uphill even when leading.
“One of the things we wanted to achieve was being really focused from the first moment on until the very last one,” Ganesharatnam said.
Syracuse needed to keep its foot on the gas for a chance to sweep. That starts with improving after each set. The Orange needed to minimize their errors, as shown by their previous 21.1% attacking rate.
In the second frame, that mark increased by 10%. Thanks to SU’s outside hitters, who thrived at the net, 16 of its 25 points came off kills, the largest amount across the three frames.
George picked up where she left off with a flick to the back-left corner to tie things at two. But the Blue Devils showed life for a while. On the very next point, Ngozi Iloh threaded the needle through the Orange backline to take a lead.
Duke challenged Syracuse constantly. It forced Lea’ea into an overshot to tie the frame at 10. Six plays later, Avery Hamlin placed the ball too low for Rana Yamada to put back into play.
But the Orange grinded and stayed patient, as Sydnie Waller came through with three straight kills to give them a lead they wouldn’t squander.
Waller had been removed from the rotation in mid-September, playing in two frames of a 16-set stretch during the month. She didn’t appear in four consecutive games, but ever since Veronica Sierzant fractured her shin against then-No. 6 Louisville on Sept. 28, she hasn’t missed a set.
“One thing leads to another, and you get a kill,” Waller said. She then turned to face Tehya Maeva. “And because of my teammates, like my setter right here, I was able to be successful in that moment.”
The Orange won 25-17, and during the frame, Maeva notched her 2,000th collegiate kill on an assist to her childhood friend, Nevada and now Syracuse teammate, McLaughlin.
“I couldn’t do it without my passers setting me up for success, and then my hitters finding ways to score,” Maeva said. “I think it’s just a true testament to what we’ve been working on and what we want to continue to keep doing.”
The third set is the hardest to win en route to a sweep. The pressure shifts to the team out front to close the match. Syracuse stayed composed, drilling Maeva’s passes from the left and right.
It could’ve been McLaughlin’s bullet at Mailinh Godschall for SU’s fifth point or Waller’s kill a few plays later. The Orange’s offense revolved around Maeva on her record-breaking night, and she propelled three of her teammates to at least eight kills.
It was just another day for her, though. Thirty-two assists nearly match her average. But Ganesharatnam saw her performance differently, especially in the third set.
“This was the best performance she had in a Syracuse uniform,” he said.
Syracuse put the icing on the cake, winning 25-20. It reached its highest ACC win total since 2022.
“It’s going to take everybody involved. It’s going to take a lot of grinding. It’s going to take a lot of believing and understanding it’s going to take some time,” Ganesharatnam said.
After two seasons in which the Orange won just three combined conference matchups, that time could be now.
