Midway through the second set, a misplayed service return from Ella Saada flew over her head, away from the net and toward the back wall of the Women’s Building.

But before the ball bounced off the wood floor, libero Aliah Bowllan raced out of play to save the point. She used a two-handed bump pass as the crowd cheered Bowllan’s miraculous save. Her pass found setter Elena Karakasi, and SU went on to win the point in an extended rally.

Bowllan flew around the court throughout the match, digging balls out wherever she was needed. She sometimes covered the backline all on her own, as the Orange’s outsides hitters pushed forward to exploit a vulnerable Hokies’ defense.

“(Bowllan’s) playing through a lot of pain right now, she’s a tough kid and has been battling injuries all season,” assistant coach Derryk Williams said. “So for her to power through like she is and playing at a high level, we’re really happy with what she’s doing.”

Despite her lingering right ankle injury, Bowllan led a revitalized Syracuse (10-11, 7-7 Atlantic Coast) defense that thwarted Virginia Tech (9-18, 2-12 Atlantic Coast) in the Orange’s straight-set victory on Sunday. Bowllan averaged six digs per set, compared to her season average of 4.09, and forced the Hokies into eventual attacking errors.

During one three-play sequence in the second set, Bowllan’s defensive skills saved SU points. On the first two plays, Bowllan used her 5-foot-5 inch frame to lay out for one-handed digs, with the ball rebounding off Bowllan’s outstretched left fist to Karakasi who set for kills to Polina Shemanova and Saada, respectively.

On the next point, a Virginia Tech attack flew past SU’s middle blockers right toward an unsuspecting Bowllan, who quickly adjusted by squatting down to salvage the long rally, before Saada capped it off with one of her 16 kills. Her last-second adjustment is not only expected, but required.

“As a libero that’s kind of your job, and also a lot of that is effort based, so kind of being ready for anything,” Bowllan said. “It’s (like that) with anything, if someone makes a mistake or it’s not the best pass, it’s the hitters job to make the set look good, it’s my job to make the ball stay up.”

With its victory today, Syracuse extended its winning streak to five matches, its longest all season. For Bowllan, a big factor in the turnaround has been a new defense system that was implemented six games ago, before a match against North Carolina.

In the revamped “setter up” system, Karakasi sits behind the middle blockers. The change also simplifies assignments for the middle blockers, who had become “overwhelmed” in the previous “read and react” defense, Williams said.

SU head coach Leonid Yelin said making the switch midseason was a “huge risk,” but Williams explained that the change has helped the Orange’s middle blockers, which in turn benefits Bowllan. Williams said that missed blocking assignments earlier in the season made things too difficult for Bowllan, who often had to guess where the ball would end up due to SU’s frontline inconsistencies.

“The more the blockers can take away, the easier her job is, because she has a smaller area to defend,” Williams said. “And then any other balls that are going to the spots that’s she not supposed to be (at) necessarily, she’ll have time to get to because it’ll be an off-speed shot or it’s going to be off the block.”

In the third set, Bowllan’s positional instincts in the revamped system helped SU suffocate an already struggling Virginia Tech offense. Even when freshman middle blocker Abby Casiano missed an occasional block, Bowllan was right behind her to keep the ball up. The senior libero was toying was the Hokie offense. On one serve Bowllan feinted a pass, beginning to put her arms up before gracefully sliding underneath the serve as it went out for an SU point.

“The better that Aliah (Bowllan) does, the better everyone else does defensively,” Williams said. “They’re the leader of the defense.”

Published on November 10, 2019 at 4:56 pm

Contact Alex: athamer@syr.edu