Syracuse wasted no time getting into its system and setting the pace in Tuesday’s game with Skyline. The Titans played clean and took an early lead. However, the Eagles crawled back to win the first set.
Read more McAdams offers a check on Trump. Owen offers a new kind of Republican. Utah voters will decide
Syracuse then answered with back-to-back-to-back set wins for a 3-1 win, and its sixth consecutive.
The Titans’ outside hitters and twin sisters, Brinley Barkdull and McKinley Barkdull, were racking up the kills for the early 13-8 lead. But a few mistakes snowballed into Skyline momentum and led to a 26-24 opening-set loss.
“I think it was just a couple of moments where we didn’t do our jobs, took it off, didn’t pass super well and then let them kind of creep back in,” said Syracuse coach Megan Allred. “The girls kind of let that fire them up into the following sets. We wanted that first set and we led most of it, then let them in. That’s one of the lessons we have to learn, but it was good to see how they turned around from it.”
The Barkdull twins really started to take over, especially Brinley. The two combined for 40 of the team’s 55 kills.
Syracuse’s rotation is set up so that one of them is always at the net playing outside. That threat was massive in their win over Skyline.
“Those two are awesome,” said Allred. “They’re a big part of our program, and McKinley hasn’t played outside before, so it’s been fun seeing her learn that role. Having at least one of them at the net at all times has made a big difference and it’s helped our offense a lot. So they’ve done an awesome job stepping up and doing that.”
Read more ‘Saved by the Bell’ co-stars pay moving tributes to Dennis Haskins, who died at 75
Meanwhile, the entire Syracuse team was passing better and kept it in-system. The team went on to win the second set 25-22 and the third 25-15.
Syracuse played similarly in the fourth set, building a 20-17 lead.
Then came Kova Symkoviak, Bailey Bennett and the Skyline Eagles.
The outside-hitting duo of Bennett and Symkoviak leads the team — and the latter just a freshman. They again wrestled the momentum away, all the way to a 24-23 Skyline set point.
Syracuse then took a timeout, hoping to avoid a fifth set.
“We took a deep breath and I think we understood that our passing just needed some fixing,” Brinley Barkdull said. “Then we said, ‘Hey, let’s get every hitter running.’ We just kept it running so they didn’t know what was coming. I think our middles did great and everyone played amazing.”
After the timeout, a block from Annie Hansen and a kill from McKinley Barkdull pushed the Titans to the 27-25 fourth-set win.
Brinley Barkdull led Syracuse with 22 kills while hitting .319 and added four aces and 12 digs. McKinley Barkdull finished with 18 kills and 10 digs.
“I love playing with her and I think it’s awesome this year,” Brinley Barkdull said. “She’s normally a right side, but she’s definitely stepped up and became the outside that we needed this year.”
Read more Opinion: The ‘famous last words’ I’d like to hear now