No. 15 Volleyball Falls to Syracuse

Friday, November 27

Syracuse, N.Y.

1:00 PM

University of Louisville

23-6 (17-2ACC)

Syracuse

23-8 (14-6ACC)

Louisville

November 27, 2015 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Cards await NCAA bid

By: Nancy Worley

Aniah Philo and Erin Fairs each had 10 kills but it was not enough as the University of Louisville volleyball team fell 25-23, 25-21, 25-15 to Syracuse in the ACC regular season finale Friday afternoon in Syracuse.

The Cardinals are 24-6 and 18-2 and will guarantee a share of the ACC crown with UNC. If the Tar Heels fall to Duke tomorrow, the Cardinals will win the trophy outright. UofL hit .145 for the match and committed nine service errors and were outblocked 12-6. Katie George had 37 assists and 10 digs and Molly Sauer had a match-high 22 digs. SU was led by SIlvi Uattara's 13 kills.

"It is just a sick feeling to end the ACC season like this," said Anne Kordes, UofL head coach. "But also the fashion in which we lost. I thought Syracuse played inspired ball and they channeled the emotion of Senior Day and looked like they were not ready to take their jerseys off."

The Cards ran out to a 5-2 lead early in the first set but had difficulty negotiating the tall blocking of Syracuse. The Orange did not take the lead until 23-22 and then a kill by Nicolette Serratore and a block fby Silvi Uattara gave the Orange the win. Freshman Aniah Philo paced the Cardinal offense with five kills. Five Cardinal service errors did not help matters.

In the second set, the two teams traded punches until SU was able to string three straight to take an 18-14 lead and force Kordes to burn her last timeout. The Cards battled back to within two at 22-20 as the Orange used their last timeout. Maggie DeJong scored but then Philo was blocked before SU's Nicolette Serratorre scored to make it 23-21. Philo scored but then committed a service error and a hitting error by DeJong gave the Orange the 25-22 win and a 2-0 set lead going into the break.

The Orange used an 11-2 run in the third set to put the game out of reach at 21-9. The Cards tried to salvage the set when Janelle Jenkins and Erin Fairs each had two kills and sparked a Syracuse timeout at 23-15. But a kill by Uattara and an Orange block ended the match with the Cards falling 25-15.

"We will just have to take a lesson in this loss and come back completely focused and put in the work to achieve our goals of advancing in the tournament," said Kordes.