Syracuse Women's Volleyball Still Searching for First Conference Win

McCabe attacks the ball.s regrouping this week after.

SU's women's volleyball looks to regroup this week after a losing weekend on the road.

The Orange lost to Notre Dame 3-1 and Boston College 3-0, putting them 0-4 in conference play.

Despite the tough losses, senior middle blocker, Lindsay McCabe, broke the school's all-time record for block assists, surpassing the previous record of 458 with her 7 block assists against Boston College on Sunday. She now has 461 total block assists for her career.

Sarah Morton (2006-09) previously held the block assists record, which she broke in 2009 during her senior season.

McCabe gave credit to her teammates for helping her achieve an individual goal.

"What this shows is that I have great teammates. So I think that shows as a team, we're a strong blocking team and they've helped me accomplish this," McCabe said.

McCabe said she knows she will continue to contribute with her blocking skills, but wants to be more of an offensive threat moving forward through the season.

"I know sometimes we're struggling on defense and serve receive, so we haven't been able to feed the middle that many balls," McCabe said. "But, I'm really hoping that as we improve our defense that we can use the middle as more of an offensive weapon."

SU women's volleyball coach, Leonid Yelin,  is looking for every possible way to win. The Orange are working on a different lineup this week, yet again.

Yelin said he is looking at running a 6-2 offense, which would use both setters, Lucie Guttakovskia and Gosia Wlaszczuk. The setters will set from the back row.

This means when Wlaszczuk is in the front row, she will use her attacking skills and play as right-side hitter and when it's time for Guttakovskia to rotate to the front row, redshirt senior Stacey Smith will play her usual right-side position.

Yelin said he thinks this lineup will work, but only if passing is on.

"Good passing would make our lives so much easier. The setter would have a couple of options instead of just one option," Yelin said. "If the setter only has one option, everyone can see that option and the team can set up their defense against that one option."

He said he hopes with the rotation like this, the team will generate more kills.

McCabe said she is hopeful the team will improve in time to muster up wins for conference.

"I think right now for us, we know we have the skills. It's the individual preparation before a game. Everybody needs to be in the mindset and believe that we can win," McCabe said.

The Orange are back at home this weekend with matches against Miami and Pittsburgh Friday and Sunday in the Women's Building.