For a few moments Sunday, Syracuse and Notre Dame actually had a battle going.
It just wasn’t the kind of battle you’d expect, as players from both teams broke into an impromptu dance battle during a third-set review.
The actual battle on the volleyball court was much more one-sided, as Notre Dame swept Syracuse 25-17, 25-18, 25-14 at the Women’s Building to drop the Orange to 0-2 in ACC play.
It wasn’t that Syracuse was completely outplayed. The Orange just struggled to get out of its own way, especially whenever it started to build some momentum.
Syracuse’s best chance to swing the match came in the second set.
The Orange had built a 15-12 lead and, for the first time all afternoon, looked like it might be able to turn the momentum in its favor.
Notre Dame answered with four straight to take a 16-15 lead. Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam called timeout, and Syracuse immediately responded to tie it at 16.
But the Irish had another answer.
With Maya Evens serving, Notre Dame scored five straight to take a 21-16 lead. Syracuse got one back, but Notre Dame scored four of the next five to close out the set 25-18.
Syracuse scored the first point of the third set before Evens went back to the service line.
And once again, Notre Dame went on a run.
Evens helped fuel nine straight points, including two aces, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 9-1 lead. The Orange never got closer than five the rest of the way.
Evens finished with four assists, two aces and 16 digs, but her impact was felt most from the service line, where she helped spark Notre Dame’s biggest runs in each of the final two sets.
Kiernan Stamey led Syracuse with nine kills, while Marie Laurio added six kills and eight digs. Abby Nicholson had five kills, and Charis Burge finished with 19 assists.
Still, Syracuse struggled to generate enough offense to keep pace. The Orange hit just .089 as a team, compared with .355 for Notre Dame, and finished with 27 kills to the Irish’s 44.
“We need to stabilize our services,” Ganesharatnam said. “We got to get to a point where we can take them more consistently out of system in order to have a better chance defending the offense.”
That became especially difficult against a Notre Dame block that consistently made Syracuse work for its points. The Irish finished with 10 blocks to Syracuse’s four, while the Orange committed 19 attack errors.
Laurio was asked to carry a heavy offensive workload despite an injury that has limited her practice time. She had a team-high 29 attacks, but finished with six kills.
Ganesharatnam said using Laurio as a hitter was a game-time decision and that the injury likely won’t fully heal until the end of the season.
For Syracuse, the first two ACC matches have offered a quick introduction to conference play. The Orange has yet to win a set, and the road doesn’t get any easier.
Syracuse hosts No. 5 SMU on Friday and No. 2 Pittsburgh on Sunday.
If the Orange wants to start turning those competitive stretches into sets, it will have to find a way to make them last a little longer.