Had Sunday’s outcome occurred 20 years prior, St. John’s coach Joanne Persico-Smith would have been pleased with the results. Sunday’s contest against Syracuse was a match-up between Persico-Smith’s undergraduate alma mater and her current school.

The St. John’s volleyball team lost to Syracuse at Carnesecca Arena on Sunday 3-2 (30-24, 25-30, 30-27, 23-30, 15-7). With the loss, St. John’s falls to 18-7, 4-4 in Big East play, while Syracuse improves to 19-7, 7-2 in the Big East.

“I always enjoy playing them (Syracuse),” Persico-Smith said. “But, I don’t get any extra adrenaline rush from playing them. I get the same pit in my stomach when I play them as when I play any other Big East team.”

The game turned out to be a hard-fought match from both teams. Four of the five game victories occurred on the one half of the volleyball court.

“I wish I had known that before I took the coin toss to begin match five,” said St. John’s graduate student Shameka Mitchell, who is one of the team’s co-captains.

The Red Storm came out strong in games one and three posting early leads of 3-0 before going on to win them. The problems occurred after they had won each of their matches.

The team allowed Syracuse to post big leads from which they could not recover from in every game they lost. In game two, they allowed Syracuse to get a 14-9 lead before losing. In game four it was 5-0, and in game five 10-3.

“Today’s loss was purely mental,” St. John’s sophomore Latoya Blunt said. “We just came into games four and five satisfied with our previous game’s work and came out flat.”

Kelly Duane led the Orange with a game-high 26 points and Cheryl Cobbina added 14 points.

“She (Duane) is a very good outside hitter, and our plan to stop her was to put a bigger block in front of her,” Persico-Smith said. “We just played a very veteran team with five seniors on it that didn’t make a lot of mistakes, and when we made mistakes, they capitalized. This loss will be a good learning experience for us.”

The team played in only its second five-game match of the year, a loss to Binghamton.

“This is not last year’s team,” Mitchell said. “This year’s team has a totally different chemistry, flow, and focus.”Had Sunday’s outcome occurred 20 years prior, St. John’s coach Joanne Persico-Smith would have been pleased with the results. Sunday’s contest against Syracuse was a match-up between Persico-Smith’s undergraduate alma mater and her current school.

The St. John’s volleyball team lost to Syracuse at Carnesecca Arena on Sunday 3-2 (30-24, 25-30, 30-27, 23-30, 15-7). With the loss, St. John’s falls to 18-7, 4-4 in Big East play, while Syracuse improves to 19-7, 7-2 in the Big East.

“I always enjoy playing them (Syracuse),” Persico-Smith said. “But, I don’t get any extra adrenaline rush from playing them. I get the same pit in my stomach when I play them as when I play any other Big East team.”

The game turned out to be a hard-fought match from both teams. Four of the five game victories occurred on the one half of the volleyball court.

“I wish I had known that before I took the coin toss to begin match five,” said St. John’s graduate student Shameka Mitchell, who is one of the team’s co-captains.

The Red Storm came out strong in games one and three posting early leads of 3-0 before going on to win them. The problems occurred after they had won each of their matches.

The team allowed Syracuse to post big leads from which they could not recover from in every game they lost. In game two, they allowed Syracuse to get a 14-9 lead before losing. In game four it was 5-0, and in game five 10-3.

“Today’s loss was purely mental,” St. John’s sophomore Latoya Blunt said. “We just came into games four and five satisfied with our previous game’s work and came out flat.”

Kelly Duane led the Orange with a game-high 26 points and Cheryl Cobbina added 14 points.

“She (Duane) is a very good outside hitter, and our plan to stop her was to put a bigger block in front of her,” Persico-Smith said. “We just played a very veteran team with five seniors on it that didn’t make a lot of mistakes, and when we made mistakes, they capitalized. This loss will be a good learning experience for us.”

The team played in only its second five-game match of the year, a loss to Binghamton.

“This is not last year’s team,” Mitchell said. “This year’s team has a totally different chemistry, flow, and focus.”