Freshman Leah Levert wants to puncture the court.

“I don’t care if no one’s ever done it before, I’m going to do it. Sorry,” she said.

The middle blocker’s goal for the season is simple: crush the ball.

In her first collegiate season, Levert is already making a difference for Syracuse (7-9, 0-4 Atlantic Coast), starting 13 matches and recording 67 blocks, good for sixth in the ACC. Despite her youth, Levert’s personality makes her a leader on and off the court. She keeps her teammates laughing and confident while she strives to improve her swing blocking, footwork and timing.

Energy is often one of the first words used to describe Levert, and she considers her constant effort her best trait on the court. Del Hughes — the head coach of the Atlanta Boom, Levert’s high school club team — said she always gave the most energy on a team that was known for it.

“She came to us and had to learn a lot about footwork and hand positioning in blocking but once she got it down, she led us to be one of the best teams in the country in blocking,” he said.

Senior middle blocker Lindsay McCabe told Levert that she sometimes overjumps into the net and out of position. Levert also said she jams her fingers blocking and needs to work on persisting through pain.

Even though blocking is Levert’s best skill, she’s focusing on improving, particularly swing blocking — a technique used when a player is late to the play and needs extra momentum to get high enough for the block.

“It’s kind of building torque, building momentum to jump higher and get to a block faster,” Levert said of swing blocking.

Levert said swing blocking is hard because it’s counter-intuitive. She is trying to pull herself up without anything to physically hold onto. But unlike footwork, she thinks the concept of swing blocking is simple enough.

When asked what footwork she is trying to achieve, Levert stood up and ran over to an imaginary court a few feet away. Once she was in position, she found the virtual ball on the other side of the court and shuffled her feet — “right, left-right, up”— to get into position for the block.

“Right now, I think she got this, how to block, finally she was able to a lot of the time do it the way she knows,” SU head coach Leonid Yelin said. “In two, three weeks, she’s going to say how in love she is with hitting.”

SU setter Alyssa Anderson, a close friend and former Atlanta Boom teammate of Levert’s, called Levert a perfectionist. Levert knows that she can’t get too down on herself if she makes a mistake, but still expects the best from herself.

“She critiques herself very well and what I like is that I’ve always been able to help her with that,” Anderson said. “She’ll get down on herself and I’ll just give her a look that say, ‘You’ve got this,’ and she’ll be ready for the next play.”

When they played club together, Levert was called “Sexy Beast,” Hughes said, a nickname given to her by Hughes’ daughter to inspire confidence in the then-timid Levert.

Now, confidence abounds. Anderson said Levert celebrates the most after a kill, circling the court, the way her teammates want. And Levert genuinely believes that one will break the court some day. If not this season, soon after.

Said Levert: “I believe I can be better, to do my best and even if my best isn’t where I should be, that’s alright.

“I just keep believing I will get there.”

Published on October 7, 2014 at 12:11 am