A race to the floor ended in a loss for freshman Kendra Lukacs, who collided with the hardwood in the midst of a heated third set with North Carolina State. The ball hit the floor first, bouncing in front of her face as she slammed her arms seconds too late. Syracuse’s deficit heightened to 15-12, but she wasn’t the only one out of place.

SU head coach Leonid Yelin ripped into outside hitter Anastasiya Gorelina, who stood next to Lukacs. A timeout whistle ended play momentarily but not his rant. He continued to question why she was playing inward. That blocking strategy worked against Boston College, not N.C. State.

It was a visible sight throughout the Orange’s (2-10, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) loss in straight sets to the Wolfpack (8-6, 1-1). SU was blown away, 25-15, in the first set. It was downed by a 20-8 run in set two. Then it faltered late in a back-and-forth third, losing that one 25-20. Ten Syracuse serves flew out of play and they posted a lowly .144 hitting percentage.

“The team didn’t show up,” Yelin said. “… Over one night people are not losing skills. They mentally are not prepared. Maybe they think they were going to do the same thing that they did before (against BC).

“That’s what they think. But that’s not obviously what we saw in this from the first game.”

Miscommunication dominated throughout. All three sets ended with misplayed balls and breakdowns. Late in the third set, Gorelina collided with Libero Belle Sand on a key volley. As much as they were racing to come back on the scoreboard, many plays looked like SU’s initial movements were stunted, initiating a game of catch-up with the ball.

Earlier, Leah Levert and Jalissa Trotter rose above the net as the ball slammed into the former’s midsection and dropped to the ground.

“That’s my fault, I got you,” Levert said to Trotter.

N.C. State rushed through zones three and four, which typically force a defense backward as the offense closes in. What Yelin witnessed was one player being out of place disrupting entire plays.

On some sets, he saw players initially move away. SU misread several volleys from the Wolfpack, pushing players out of position defensively. It all amounted to disastrous rallies where balls flew in every direction except over the net.

“I know a couple went down, but there were a couple we crossed between and they’re good swings” Sand said. “The ball’s coming pretty fast. You have a lot to read so just as a young team we need to work on getting to our spot and that not being our set spot. To be ready to move from that spot.”

How a team defends is largely indicated by how the opposing offense is moving. While N.C. State didn’t move any faster than BC did on Friday, N.C. State changed its positioning. Its hits were aimed over the front line and consistently landed to the back floor as SU athletes fell late while racing in pursuit.

“From first game we never were even close to being in the game,” Yelin said. “We wasn’t. We would like to figure (it out) as well as you.”

Published on September 25, 2016 at 6:33 pm

Contact Bobby: rpmannin@syr.edu