Syracuse seniors Jalissa Trotter and Santita Ebangwese couldn’t stand the idea of graduating without a chance in the NCAA tournament, which neither have reached in their first three seasons.

A few days before the start of July practices, the two seniors spoke about how to reach the level of a tournament team.

“We wanted to figure out what the team was missing on the court to help us win,” Trotter said. “As upperclassmen, that’s our job.”

The setter and middle blocker came to a decision: SU needed to improve its serve, Trotter said.

Last season, Syracuse (2-3) averaged 1.18 aces per set and ranked No. 197 out of 334 in the country. The Orange also lost Annie Bozzo and Belle Sand, two of last season’s top four players in aces.

To make up for that loss, Ebangwese and Trotter targeted serves over the summer.

When SU returned from its summer break the first week of July, Trotter and Ebangwese introduced their plan to the rest of the team. Everyone agreed: Serving was the missing link. At first, SU’s players took practices slow. With everyone adjusting from summer vacation, they played serving games that weren’t “too strenuous,” Trotter said.

At the beginning of every summer practice, each Orange server spent at least 10 minutes working on improving her motion. Two days a week, SU focused solely on serving, whether that was where to hit the ball, the toss or how they jumped, junior Aliah Bowllan said.

As summer progressed, the energy of practices rose. Each player repeatedly fired a serve against the wall of the Women’s Building so they could perfect what part of their hand hit the ball. They introduced a toss, ensuring that the ball apexed where they could reach it at full extension. After about 10 minutes, the team incorporated the net, Trotter said.

From there, players progressed to real games with live serving and real passing to “have a little fun,” Trotter said.

Despite the offseason effort, Syracuse has struggled. In the first five games, the Orange served 14 more errors than its opponents. Overall, SU has 19 aces — to 48 errors. SU ranks 304th in the country in aces per set (.95).

“When we have good serves … we’re much more successful and much more likely to be in system and actually get the point back,” Bowllan said. “When we struggled in serving, we had tighter games and it was tougher for us to get the ball back.”

In practice, head coach Leonid Yelin implemented repercussions for struggling players. If players missed a serve, they sat on the sideline until the game was over, Bowllan said. The competition and stress forced players to worry about every nuance of how they hit the ball, their motion and the toss, just like they had worked on over the summer.

Player by player were eliminated until there were two remaining: sophomore Ella Saada and freshman Keeghan Andrews. Andrews raised her arm to smack the serve. It floated through the air and slapped the middle of the netting, not landing over the net. Saada, who has the second most service errors on the team with seven, won.

“If you don’t have a serve, you don’t have game,” Saada said.

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Published on September 12, 2018 at 10:58 pm

Contact Adam: adhillma@syr.edu | @_adamhillman