Syracuse ends season with 4-set loss to Virginia Tech
Syracuse lost its 11th straight match Friday, falling to Virginia Tech in four sets to end its 2025 campaign. Tara Deluca | Staff Photographer
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Trailing 2-1 but leading 23-21 in the fourth set Friday, Syracuse was in a familiar position. Amid a 10-game losing streak, the Orange had struggled to close sets. It’s why they hadn’t forced a fifth set since Oct. 22 against Boston College.
Fittingly, Emma Ortiz’s serve landed wide to cut SU’s lead to one. Isabella Mishler then responded with an ace to tie the match. On its third match point, Virginia Tech made the Orange pay, as Aisha Keric’s kill capped a sequence that acted as a microcosm for Syracuse’s 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference campaign.
SU (13-17, 5-15 ACC) laid it all on the line Friday, but its fourth-set collapse, combined with 28 attack errors, was too much to overcome Virginia Tech (12-19, 4-16 ACC). The Hokies notched their highest hitting percentage (26.4%) since Oct. 5.
Syracuse struggled mightily on offense entering Friday, hitting above 20% once in its last 13 games. But Virginia Tech’s porous defense, which ranks last in conference play in opponent hitting percentage allowed (26.4%), was a prime opportunity for SU to find a rhythm in its last regular-season match.
Right out of the gate, though, Syracuse’s offensive struggles continued, hitting just 12.2% in the first set.
The same couldn’t be said for Virginia Tech, which hit 26.8% while using many shot types. Keric gave the Hokies an 11-8 lead with a finesse shot that dropped in over SU’s frontline.
Later in the set, Gabriella McLaughlin notched one of SU’s six first-set attack errors with an attempt from the middle that failed to get over the net. A Tehya Maeva ace cut the Hokies’ lead to 19-18, but they never relinquished it, with Brianna Holladay finishing the Orange off for a 25-22 set win.
Much of Syracuse’s offensive struggles can be attributed to Skylar George and McLaughlin. Their inefficiencies hampered SU in the first set, with the duo recording just four kills on 27 combined attempts.
With Zharia Harris-Waddy out, Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam called on Oreva Evivie at the middle blocker spot. The graduate student from Charlotte, North Carolina, rose with Maeva to deny VT’s kill leader Payton Woods at the net to take a 6-3 advantage in the second set.
But Virginia Tech continued to attack from the middle with no threat of Harris-Waddy’s block. Mishler (13 kills) and Holladay (11 kills) were the beneficiaries of that, pacing the Hokies in kills. Mishler is often the source of VT’s most efficient offense, ranking 10th in conference play in hitting percentage (32.8%).
After both teams continued to trade points, Mishler gave VT a 19-17 advantage on a rocket from the middle. But then, the Orange made their run, with George finding a gap in the middle to tie the set at 23-23, and Sydnie Waller firing it off the VT block at the net to tie the match 1-1.
Also plaguing Syracuse in its losing streak has been its inability to prevent long scoring runs from its opponent. That’s what happened in the third set, with the Hokies racing off to a 7-2 lead after Woods caught a piece of the endline.
The Hokies’ third-set domination continued, taking a 19-9 lead. A 6-0 SU run cut the deficit to 19-15, but the Orange couldn’t escape the early hole. George was rejected by Holladay and Keric to take it to set-point, and an Elizabeth Aylward shot from the back row put Virginia Tech up 2-1.
Two bright spots for Syracuse against the Hokies were Waller (15 kills) and Soana Lea’ea (14 kills). With George and McLaughlin struggling, they were frequently called up.
To begin the fourth set, Lea’ea ran her patented slide play for a pair of kills, the second one putting the Orange up 5-4. From there, both teams traded points, with Syracuse battling in what was its last set of the season.
McLaughlin, who’d been SU’s cornerstone all season, delivered with back-to-back kills to give Syracuse a 15-14 lead.
But again, a familiar story played out for the Orange — Virginia Tech recorded the next four points to take an 18-15 lead, after Aylward’s serve hit the net and rolled over for a point.
Maeva’s 1,000th assist of the season was timely, connecting with Waller for a kill to make it 19-17 VT. But then, Syracuse’s familiar end-of-set miscues resurfaced, with Virginia Tech capitalizing on the Ortiz service error to take the set to extra points and win 27-25.
