Orange Volleyball Finishes Pre-Season with Win; Hopeful for ACC Play

Story and photo by Jessica Eley

(Syracuse, N.Y.) -
 

Salkute goes up to swing

Bump, set, hit, kill...that’s how most balls ended after Syracuse's junior middle blocker, Monika Salkute, touched them Sunday evening. She ended the Otto Invitational Tournament at the SU Women's Building  with a career-high 20 kills against Cornell.

“I feel like the setter (Gosia Wlaszczuk) trusted me more than usual...someone had to step up,” Salkute said.

SU head volleyball coach, Leonid Yelin wants more.

Yelin  took a long pause before he spoke, then said he wasn’t impressed. “I know the potential of everyone of my players on my team...I know she can play better,” he said.

Yelin: "I think we were tired."

The Orange had played its third and final match of the weekend after losing to Colgate in five sets just hours before.

“I would be more than happy if we had a little bit more time between first and second match," Yelin said ."They recovered a little bit, but I think we were tired.”

The Orange finished its last pre-season tournament, 2-1, sweeping Albany on Saturday 3-0, before losing to Colgate 3-2 and beating Cornell 3-1 on Sunday. Colgate was the tournament winner.

Salkute and Wlaszczuk were named to the all-tournament team. Salkute finished with with 52 kills while Wlaszczuk collected 114 assists over the weekend.

Sand gets her chance

With Melina Violas, who normally plays libero, home with the flu, freshman defensive specialist Belle Sand, made her first start as libero in Sunday's matches. She finished the weekend with 33 digs. “It feels good, like all of my hard work is paying off,"Sand said. "The players are trusting me. Coach is trusting me,”

 

“We wanted to give her a little bit of opportunity to see how she would do as a starter,"Yelin said. "She knows she needs to be more confident.”

ACC next

The Orange (7-5) opens conference play this weekend at North Carolina State on Friday and #13 North Carolina on Sunday. Salkute said she knows it's a tough road ahead and the team needs to turn up its play even more.
 

“I think we’re improving by little steps from the first tournament," Salkute said."We’re making less of our own mistakes...we’ll see next week when the opponents will be much tougher than they are right now,”

Yelin is hopeful for conference play. He said he knows that his team has the potential to be very good and can compete with anyone in the nation.

“Every game we play, we are playing to win,” Yelin said.