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Hanna Borer looked over to her coach before resuming her pre-serve routine. Syracuse was up two sets to one over Virginia Tech and the scoreboard read 23-22 in favor of the Orange. Borer served and the ball traveled comfortably toward Alyssa Bert who dug the ball back into the air toward Riley Hoffman. 

The sophomore played the ball over to the far left sideline where Polina Shemanova drifted. The outside hitter rose up and sent a blistering shot toward Virginia Tech’s Maddie Slagle. The best the libero could do was get a fist to the ball as it careened under the net for another SU point. 

On the ensuing possession, off of a Lauren Woodford serve, Virginia Tech teed up Ava Francis in hopes of drawing within one point again, but her kill attempt fell out of bounds, giving Syracuse the win, 25-22.

After defeating the Hokies in four sets, the Orange will return home after a perfect weekend of league play to improve to 4-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Just two days ago, Bakeer Ganesharatnam’s squad downed Wake Forest in a five-set, come-from-behind thriller. 

Shemanova led Syracuse by putting yet another offensive clinic on display. The graduate student recorded 24 kills to help round off the Orange’s short road trip in winning style — a weekend where she amassed more than 50 kills across just two games. One of the best outside hitters in program history, Shemanova is closing in on becoming first in all-time kills for Syracuse. Her performance against Virginia Tech places her just 25 kills away from tying Diane Fiume (1997-2000) at the top with 1,698 career kills. 

Alongside Shemanova, no other SU player finished with double-digit kill totals. Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk ended with nine kills while Naomi Franco chipped in with six following her personal-best 23 kills against the Demon Deacons this past Friday. 

Hoffman and Woodford combined for 39 assists for Syracuse. Hoffman’s individual effort of 23 came just five shy of tying her personal best, which she accomplished against Wake Forest. Woodford’s 16 was the second-most for the Orange while Bert added four. 

Defensively, redshirt freshman Raina Hughes continued to show her prowess at the net, totaling four blocks this afternoon. Her play on Sunday now marks three out of four conference games where she’s led the Orange in that category. Bre Walp had three blocks and Lokhmanchuk contributed two of her own. 

Syracuse never seemed threatened by the Hokies throughout the entire match, dominating despite dropping the second set. Statistically, the Orange led in almost every major category, recording more points, kills, aces, assists, blocks and digs. Despite the penultimate set ending with a mere three-point differential, the first three sets were lopsided in the winner’s favor with the gap being six points or more. 

For VT, most of their production came from middle blocker Cara Lewis who tallied an efficient 11 kills on just 22 total attempts. Last week’s ACC Freshman of the Week, Borer played a huge role for the Hokies today, leading her team in assists with 21 after recording 52 last weekend.

Published on October 2, 2022 at 5:19 pm

Contact Tyler: trschiff@syr.edu | @theTylerSchiff