Leonid Yelin called a timeout in the second set after Duke rattled off three points, putting SU down by six points. The head coach motioned toward the scoreboard and pointed toward his head, spiritedly encouraging his players to forget the three-point Duke run.

They did, winning four of the next six points. But for SU (8-17, 1-12 Atlantic Coast), it was too little too late and No. 2 Duke (18-6, 10-3) protected that and many other large leads, stifling the Orange in a 25-16, 25-21, 25-19 straight-set defeat at the Women’s Building on Sunday.

“If we can sustain that fight a little longer in the sets, we might have a little bit of a different result,” McCabe said, “So I think we have points in a game where we’re doing a great job of fighting, but we’re not sustaining that the entire set.”

After Yelin’s timeout at 23-17 in the second set, Lindsay McCabe hammered a kill into Duke’s side of the court. 23-18. After Duke intervened with a point, the Orange rally continued and Gosia Wlaszczuk came back with a spike. 24-19. Without celebrating, Wlaszczuk walked to the back line to serve, her face expressionless. Duke returned the serve out of bounds. 24-20. She served again and Duke again returned the ball out of bounds. 24-21.

Duke returned Wlaszczuk’s next serve and the ball fell to the ground after SU batted the ball around and the second set ended with Duke winning 25-21.

“Those rallies, it could really go either way, so we have to work harder so that it falls our way,” Levert said.

Down 17-9 in the first set, SU needed a spark to get back in the game. Duke batted the ball around and couldn’t return it to SU’s side of the net, sparking a 7-2 Orange run. Monika Salkute, Leah Levert and McCabe each tallied kills during the rally.

A Duke timeout switched momentum as Lucie Guttakovskia misplayed a Duke spike. On the next play, Wlaszczuk dug the ball and another SU player set the ball to Stacey Smith who pounded the ball into two waiting blockers’ hands. Duke rolled SU for another three consecutive points, taking the set 25-16.

In the third set, four freshmen — Dana Crispi, Belle Sand, Levert and Lucie — roamed the floor for SU with Duke leading 22-16. But it was the grad student Smith who answered for Syracuse, smacking a ball Duke couldn’t return and fist pumping in celebration. SU tallied another two points and started building momentum again.

But like the first two sets, Duke broke Syracuse.

As Guttakovskia and McCabe went up to block a Duke attack, Emily Sklar slipped the ball diagonally past their hands. One final kill by Jeme Obeime punctuated the set and the match.

“When you feel it with all your heart, with your soul, you give everything in this rally and you lost, it’s like you climbing to the mountains and you right here,” Yelin said, as he raised his hands. “And all the way down,” as he lowered them.

Published on November 9, 2014 at 6:52 pm

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati