Spring Break
The Daily OrangeVB | Game 1 win against Notre Dame only false hope for Orange
By Matt Ehalt
Posted: 10/15/07, 1:49 AM EST Section: Sports
The Syracuse women's volleyball team had the momentum and confidence after taking game one in its pivotal Big East matchup against Notre Dame Sunday. Considering the Orange's lack of success against the Fighting Irish, the game one victory seemed like a good omen.
It wasn't.
Slow starts and inconsistencies in the second and third games, a problem that has occurred often for the Orange this year, prevented SU from defeating Notre Dame and furthered Notre Dame's dominance over Syracuse as the Fighting Irish (8-9, 4-3) beat the Orange (12-10, 4-3) 3-1 at the Women's Building Sunday. On Friday, Syracuse swept DePaul (5-15, 1-6) 3-0.
To say Notre Dame has been dominant historically against SU would be an understatement. Coming into Sunday's game, Notre Dame had won 14 straight matches against SU and was 14-1 all-time. Since 2001, Notre Dame was 18-0 in games played against Syracuse, sweeping the last six matches.
Yet the 2007 version of Notre Dame was not the Notre Dame of old, holding a 3-3 conference record coming into the game and giving Syracuse hope to change the streak.
"I thought we had a really good chance to beat them," SU assistant head coach Carol LaMarche said. "Notre Dame's not the same they were a couple of years ago. I think any other day it could have gone our way. I think the second and third game, we kind of started off really slow."
The Orange looked like a championship-caliber team in the first game as they beat Notre Dame, 30-26. The Orange never trailed after taking the lead 9-8 and tallying a hit percentage of .362. Kacie MacTavish and Brittany Kern kept the Fighting Irish off-balance with strong kills.
But the second game did not go so well for SU as Notre Dame took the first point and never trailed on its way to a 31-29 win. The crispness in the attack game that SU seemed to have in game one did not seem to be there in the second game. Senior outside hitter Cheryl Cobbina said the team's recurring second-game slump started again, which did not happen in the sweep of DePaul.
It wasn't.
Slow starts and inconsistencies in the second and third games, a problem that has occurred often for the Orange this year, prevented SU from defeating Notre Dame and furthered Notre Dame's dominance over Syracuse as the Fighting Irish (8-9, 4-3) beat the Orange (12-10, 4-3) 3-1 at the Women's Building Sunday. On Friday, Syracuse swept DePaul (5-15, 1-6) 3-0.
To say Notre Dame has been dominant historically against SU would be an understatement. Coming into Sunday's game, Notre Dame had won 14 straight matches against SU and was 14-1 all-time. Since 2001, Notre Dame was 18-0 in games played against Syracuse, sweeping the last six matches.
Yet the 2007 version of Notre Dame was not the Notre Dame of old, holding a 3-3 conference record coming into the game and giving Syracuse hope to change the streak.
"I thought we had a really good chance to beat them," SU assistant head coach Carol LaMarche said. "Notre Dame's not the same they were a couple of years ago. I think any other day it could have gone our way. I think the second and third game, we kind of started off really slow."
The Orange looked like a championship-caliber team in the first game as they beat Notre Dame, 30-26. The Orange never trailed after taking the lead 9-8 and tallying a hit percentage of .362. Kacie MacTavish and Brittany Kern kept the Fighting Irish off-balance with strong kills.
But the second game did not go so well for SU as Notre Dame took the first point and never trailed on its way to a 31-29 win. The crispness in the attack game that SU seemed to have in game one did not seem to be there in the second game. Senior outside hitter Cheryl Cobbina said the team's recurring second-game slump started again, which did not happen in the sweep of DePaul.
Be the first to comment on this story