CORRECTION: In a previous version of this article, the teams Syracuse will play in the Bluejay Invitational were misstated. The team will play against Creighton, Denver and Kansas State. Nebraska-Omaha is a separate game.  The Daily Orange regrets this error.

When a program makes a coaching change, it takes time for the players to adjust to the new expectations.  Syracuse’s first-year head coach Leonid Yelin knows that it takes time to make that transition and see the results carry over to the court.

The Orange won its first three games of the season last weekend at the Colgate Classic, defeating Illinois-Chicago, Bryant and Colgate, but Yelin sees plenty of room for growth early in the season.

“After two weeks, I don’t expect miracles to happen,” said Yelin. “I saw little things that they picked up that we were working on.”

Yelin spent 15 seasons at the helm of the Louisville Cardinals women’s volleyball team and he took his championship resume to Colorado in 2011 to serve as an assistant coach. SU hired Yelin to take over the program in December after firing Jing Pu in the middle of the 2011 season.

Yelin is no stranger to NCAA tournament competition. He led the Cardinals to 14 NCAA tournaments and in four of those seasons, his team advanced to the Sweet 16. Now, the experienced coach will aim to lead the Orange to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history.

SU (3-0) looks to continue its early-season success at the Bluejay Invitational this weekend in Omaha, Neb. The team will face Creighton, Denver and No. 21 Kansas State (3-0) in three games at the tournament. The Orange will also play Nebraska-Omaha during the road trip on Tuesday.

Yelin said his players picked up the little things to win the Colgate Classic last weekend and if they are able to continue to develop, they could be crowned champions of the Bluejay Invitational.

Still, he doesn’t expect this team to get off to the same promising start it did in 2010 when it began the season 17-0 and finished 23-9 and 5-9 against the Big East.

Last year, SU started 3-0 and finished 19-12.

“The schedule we have this year is very, very different from last year,” Yelin said. “We definitely won’t be 17-0, I can tell you right now. We could do it every year. We could have 20 wins, but we play teams that are going to be better.”

While that may be the case against Kansas State, the Orange has momentum in its favor going into Saturday’s matchup after winning its first three games.

If the Orange adapts to Yelin’s demanding coaching style, future teams could match the success of the 2010 group.

To achieve that, Yelin runs intense practices. He said that he tries to make practice tougher than it would be in the games so that his players are well prepared.

He saw the preparation in practice carry over in SU’s three wins last weekend.

Sophomore outside hitter Andrea Fisher tied her career-high in kills last weekend with 18 against Colgate, and she said Syracuse’s confidence from last weekend will travel with the team to Nebraska this weekend.

“We can definitely use our confidence from last weekend with our three wins going into this one but we definitely could have still played better as a team,” Fisher said.

Fisher acknowledged the Orange has a tough task this weekend, but she sees it as an opportunity for improvement rather than something to fear and agonize.

“We still have a lot more to improve on,” she said. “We’re going to keep working on it and we’re going to be playing tougher teams this weekend so it’ll be good to test ourselves against some better competition to see how we do.”

Published on August 30, 2012 at 8:58 pm

Contact Austin: arpollac@syr.edu