Louisville knew what the Syracuse attack would bring. The Cardinals prepared for it perfectly.

On Thursday afternoon in the Women’s Building, Louisville’s second team wore white shirts bearing the numbers of Syracuse players Silvi Uattara, Gosia Wlaszczuk, Samantha Clarey and Nicolette Serratore. They then attacked from their customary positions, and the Cardinals starters stifled the attack.

The preparation worked, as Syracuse (9-15, 1-8 Big East) failed to establish a consistent attack in Friday’s three-set (25-23, 25-12, 25-18) loss to Louisville (20-3, 9-1) in the Women’s Building. The Orange couldn’t fool Cincinnati (9-14, 7-3) either in a three-set (25-22, 25-20, 25-19) loss on Sunday that brought its current losing streak to five. The teams’ defenses stymied SU’s offense and forced the Orange into mistakes.

“They knew exactly what we were going to do, and we tried to do the exact same thing, so we switched up the hitting,” Clarey said after the loss to the Cardinals. “We knew where their blocks were going to be, but they have such strong, tall blockers.”

Louisville easily predicted Syracuse’s point of attack in its first game against the program’s former head coach Leonid Yelin, who was hired by SU last December. The Cardinals’ staunch, athletic blocking up the middle, led by 6-foot-2-inch middle blocker Gwen Rucker and 6-foot-3-inch middle blocker Brooke Mattingly, shut down the Orange offense. Louisville tallied 21 blocks to Syracuse’s 11.

Syracuse avoided the Louisville blockers in a back-and-forth first set. The Orange fought back from a 12-6 deficit to tie it at 15. After a service error by Louisville’s Carly Sahagian brought the score to 24-23, Lola Arslanbekova put the set away with a powerful kill into the middle of the Orange defense.

Syracuse’s offense continued to struggle in the second set. To compensate for Louisville’s blocking presence up the middle, the Orange’s hitters started spraying the ball all over the floor. But inaccuracy cost Syracuse, as it committed 11 attack errors in the set. Wlaszczuk drilled the ball over the back line and Louisville setter Hannah George scored on a kill on the next point to give the Cardinals the lopsided 25-13 victory.

The Orange fought back in the third set. Syracuse held a 17-17 tie, but the Cardinals broke the score open with a 7-0 run during which the Orange made three attacking errors. Uattara, who leads Syracuse with 3.5 kills per set, made the sixth of her seven attack errors of the match in that span. She had only two kills.

Yelin said his team was overwhelmed by the veteran Louisville lineup at the end of the third set.

“Down the stretch, the experience, knowledge and character took over,” Yelin said.

Blocks hurt Syracuse in Friday’s match, but digs did the Orange in on Sunday.

Cincinnati set itself up in all the right spots and made some acrobatic plays to counter Syracuse’s hits. The Orange made 28 errors as Cincinnati dug most of the hits that landed in bounds.

“They were definitely really scrappy; they dug a lot of balls and were in the right spot,” setter Emily Betteridge said. “They blocked really well so that when we hit around it, they were there.”

Uattara bounced back with an 11-kill effort against Cincinnati. Still, it wasn’t enough to beat a disciplined and prepared Cincinnati defense that racked up 42 digs in the match.

Yelin said he used to mark the opposing players in practice when he coached at Louisville. The Cardinals showed the strategy’s effectiveness Friday, and Yelin would like to use it again.

But he said his inexperienced players have to be completely prepared themselves before preparing for their opponent’s tendencies.

“I was doing this when I had an experienced team,” Yelin said. “I didn’t do this once this year because we’re worrying about what we have to do. Worrying about them would be a little too much.”

Published on October 21, 2012 at 11:48 pm

Contact Jacob: jspramuk@syr.edu