Orange Volleyball Looks to Bounce Back After Three Straight Losses in Ohio

rs-sophomore outside hitter, Valeriya Shaipova. Photo courtesy of cuse.com 

SU head volleyball coach, Leonid Yelin, sat in his office at Manley Field House on Monday afternoon reflecting on his team's weaknesses and strengths from the weekend. He said he thinks his team worked very hard but there are certain weaknesses that playing tougher teams exposed.

"If you can't get the ball to the setter, it doesn't matter what we've been practicing," Yelin said.

The team went 0-3 this weekend at the Xavier Tournament in Cincinnati, losing to Ohio State 3-2, Xavier 3-0 and Ohio University 3-1. Ohio State, Ohio and Xavier all appeared in the NCAA tournament last year. After starting the season 5-1, the Orange is now 5-4. 

Yelin said he and the coaching staff stressed the importance of ball control and controlling the easy balls during pre-season and now the players see why. They are not able to run their offense if the pass is not to the setter. Although, the team’s weak points showed this past weekend, defense proved its strongest point as usual.

The Orange out-blocked every team with 57 total blocks during the weekend.

"We need to keep doing well blocking wise, when the ball is served to us and we nail it to the setter, 90 percent of the time we're going to get the point," Yelin said.

Lindsay McCabe, the 6'1 redshirt senior middle blocker, earned a spot on the all-tournament team after finishing the weekend with 15 kills and 15 blocks. She is 24 blocks away from being the all-time block assists leader at Syracuse.

"We had some tougher competition this weekend compared to other weekends," said McCabe. "It might not have showed, but we did play better this weekend."

After Monday’s closed practice at the Women's Building she said the team worked hard in simulated game drills.

Last week, junior outside hitter, Silvi Uattara said the team needed to focus on the first touch of the ball during the weekend's tournament and that is exactly what the team struggled with.

The Orange had more reception errors than their opponents in each game, totaling 25 for the weekend. Reception errors are serves that hit the floor, a ball that can't be kept in play or if a player is called for a lift while attempting to pass the serve.

With Atlantic Coast Conference play around the corner, Yelin said he is looking for the best possible lineup that will win games. So far he said he is only getting production in offense from Uattara, McCabe and Monika Salkute.

Yelin is looking forward to the redshirt sophomore outside hitter, Valeriya Shaipova, being back to full health. Shaipova tore her ACL at practice last season and has since been working at getting her knee back to strength.

"We're working for Valeria to come back to 100 percent...This would give us a chance to move Monika (Salkute) back to her spot," Yelin said. "Our winning streak last year started when she stepped on the floor as an outside hitter before we loss her to injury."

This means Salkute and McCabe would be the middle blockers. Shaipova receiving more sets would open up Uattara more, which would make it easier for her to score points. Yelin said he hopes this lineup will be good for this weekend against their last non-conference opponents.

This weekend the Orange faces in-state rivals Albany, Colgate and Cornell at the Otto Invitational home tournament on Saturday and Sunday in the Women's Building.