Late in the fourth set of Syracuse’s win over Cornell on Sunday, Syracuse outside hitter Valeriya Shaipova leapt for a block before landing awkwardly on her left leg and surgically repaired left knee. She stayed down on the court for the rest of the point until her teammates came rushing over to see if she was OK.

Slowly, Shaipova pushed herself off the floor while nodding her head and reassuring her teammates that it was just a hard fall.

“Just take your time and you will be fine,” she said they told her.

Now 11 months removed from tearing her ACL, Shaipova says she up to “60 or 70 percent” recovered, but she’s back to starting for SU (7-5). To help ease her transition, middle blocker Monika Salkute stepped into the vacant outside hitter position for the first time in her life. But Shaipova has more than just the physical injury to recover from.

After being out of game action for nearly a year, the toughest recovery is mental. Shaipova said her confidence is “in the middle” right now and that she sometimes is scared to jump or go full speed for a ball.
“She has to put a couple of good matches behind her belt to get her confidence back up because she has skills,” SU head coach Leonid Yelin said.

Despite playing only 22 matches last year, Shaipova ended with the sixth-most points and kills on the team. Yelin credited a key four-game winning streak last season to Shaipova’s play, capped off with a 16-kill, 14-dig performance against Clemson late last October.

Shaipova’s importance on the team is the starting point for every lineup conversation Yelin has. Dealing with injuries, illness and inexperience, SU has tried out seven different starting combinations in its 12 games this season.

“All these matches we played with three hitters, one freshman, and Monika in a position she never played,” Yelin said.

Without Shaipova at full strength, Yelin was forced to find another hitter, and he turned to Salkute, who finished last season tied for fourth on the team in kills from a blocking position.

“I have to adjust as a player,” Salkute said of the switch. “I really like playing defense and blocking, (but) I feel great playing all around.”

The junior has thrived in her new position, recording 138 kills this season en route to becoming the team’s second-best attacking option. She continues to rotate from outside hitter to middle blocker when Shaipova or another hitter is on the floor, and she is third on the team in blocks and first in digs.

“Like day and night,” Yelin said of Salkute’s positions. “Not just physically and skills-wise to do this, it’s a different mental game. … I think she’s doing very well.”

Yelin’s goal is for Shaipova to return to full strength and play more points as a hitter, allowing Salkute to play permanently at middle blocker. And finding Salkute’s flexibility has already paid off in games.

In Saturday’s game against Albany, Yelin felt he needed an additional hitter to close out a tight set. He moved Salkute to the left and Shaipova to the right, with outside hitter Silvi Uattara playing in the back row, giving the Orange one more hitter than usual. Down two, SU took seven of the next ten points to close out the match.

On Sunday against Cornell, Salkute recorded a game-high 20 kills.

“I feel (the) setter trusted me more than usual,” Salkute said. “Someone had to step up in the game and I guess that was me.”

While Salute excelled, Shaipova did too, playing the entire game against the Big Red and covering more of the floor than she had all season.

“Obviously she played better,” Yelin said. “We believe she is going to be better. … It’s hard, but without playing her we can’t even hope she will be back.”

Published on September 24, 2014 at 12:04 am