Last week during practice, head coach Leonid Yelin called for his players to get into their first rotation.

Junior setter Gosia Wlaszczuk looked at her coach and said, “Which rotation is first?” The Orange was less than a week removed from freshman Leah Levert returning to the court and sophomore Valeriya Shaipova was injured.

Wlaszczuk had lost track of her teammates.

Now with two outside hitters injured and three players in new positions, SU (8-13, 1-8 Atlantic Coast) is struggling to find on-court chemistry as its season winds down. Wlaszczuk has few options to pass to on the offensive side while SU’s defensive specialists, Yelin said, simply aren’t playing at an ACC level.

When asked how injuries affected his team, Yelin was flabbergasted.

“Injuries? Oh boy. A lot. A lot,” he said, flailing for the right words to describe his unprecedented situation.

Shaipova tore her ACL last season, leaving her to rehab for most of the summer. Against Pittsburgh on Oct. 12, she reinjured her knee and Yelin said she won’t play again this season.

Over the summer, outside hitter and projected starter Nicolette Serratore injured her ankle and was declared out for the season. Three weeks ago, Levert took a ball to the head in practice and missed three games due to the injury.

Chemistry is key in volleyball, Yelin said, because the ball never stops and timing has to be perfect between teammates.

“The way you’re breathing, I already know where you are,” Yelin said of an ideal team. “The way you call for the ball, I already know when and what you expect from me.”

With Shaipova and Serratore out, Yelin was forced to move middle blocker Monika Salkute to outside hitter.

In the team’s lone ACC win against Wake Forest, Salkute led the team in attempts and kills. In two of the three previous games, Salkute failed to register five kills.

“I don’t know how many options I would normally have because I’m just starting,” said Wlaszczuk, a first-year setter. “I just think this team has had such bad luck.”

When Salkute is hitting well, Wlaszczuk can spread the ball around more. Against Wake Forest, middle blocker Lindsay McCabe had eight kills on double-digit attempts while Wlaszczuk herself had 11 attempts and five kills and the Orange won.

In the previous weekend against Miami and Pittsburgh, only the primary option, outside hitter Silvi Uattara, was producing. In each game, Uattara recorded 21 kills on 66 opportunities, which Yelin said is far too many.

The only other player to produce consistently that weekend was McCabe, who has had to take on more of an offensive role this season.

“If we don’t have that strength on the outside, then I really have to get more balls in and start putting the ball down,” she said.

Yelin said the plan was always for blockers to hit but that it isn’t possible without a good first pass, either when serve receiving or digging opponents’ hits.

“We don’t have (defensive specialists) on the level of ACC unfortunately,” Yelin said. “That’s why our serve receive is shaky.”

Yelin said he knows that these are growing pains from moving to the ACC last year, a much better volleyball conference than the Big East.

The head coach has accepted reality and until the team improves with stronger recruiting, he will work with what he has.

“When we were serve receiving well, you could see our team. Same game, (depending on) serve receive, same players looks like stars or look …” Yelin said, before pausing. “I’m not going to say how.”

Published on October 28, 2014 at 12:06 am