Kendra Lukacs finds herself without a spot in the lineup
When Kendra Lukacs turned her left ankle on Sept. 22 against Pittsburgh, Ella Saada was asked to step up. Her shoulder had just healed and she was prepared to start as outside hitter. The injury may have caused Lukacs to miss only four full games, but Saada’s performance over the last two months has left Lukacs without a spot in the SU starting lineup.
With the success of Saada and the formation the Orange used, head coach Leonid Yelin was not going to let Lukacs walk right back into the lineup once healthy. She watched close sets slip away from the Orange recently, mostly from the bench as an auxiliary hitter.
Syracuse (19-12, 11-7 Atlantic Coast) may have a lot of depth, but Yelin said that the Orange will stick to what is working, only changing the formation and tactics if necessary. For Lukacs, this means fewer attack attempts, all exclusively as a bench player. When she made her return to the court, the Orange had just won five straight conference games and Saada was playing her best volleyball of the season.
“With her missing, we got used to the other system,” Yelin said. “Now, we’re going with who we think can give us the best chance to win.”
In all six games prior to her injury, Lukacs tallied double-digit kills, averaging 13.3 a game. She was a focal point of the SU offense and was set up to attempt a kill at least 21 times in all six of the games.
Lukacs only missed four full games, returning Oct. 13. She played a handful of points as a backline player at the end of the third set as Yelin eased her back into match competition. She did not register a kill again until Oct. 29 against Virginia, and she has tallied double-digit kills one time since — last Sunday against Duke. Sunday’s win was the only time this season that Lukacs and Saada both registered at least 10 kills.
“It definitely is frustrating because I’m a competitor and I want to win because I feel like everyone should want to win,” Lukacs said. “I mostly just want it for the team more than anything, so I have the mentality that if I do get in, I have to be ready to make a play.”
While the two are competing for the same position as outside hitter opposite leading attacker Anastasiya Gorelina, both insist team comes before self.
“We play the same position, and I love Kendra,” Saada said. “She is a very good player and if she plays better, she’ll be on the court, and I’ll cheer her on from the sideline.”
Yelin said that Saada has earned her spot in the lineup through her all-around abilities playing both outside hitter and backline. Saada ranks third in kills (195), second in digs (216) and first in aces (32) on the season.
SU attempted to try changing the formation to accommodate Lukacs’ return, but the change was not effective. After playing an entire month with just Saada and Gorelina as leading outside hitters, SU has a lineup that excluded Lukacs.
“We do have a system where we play 5-1, one setter and five hitters,” Yelin said. “In that case we were able to not replace, but just add Kendra.”
Yelin said this was ineffective for the Orange. With just two games left in the regular season, Lukacs is unlikely to see another start. In the three full weeks she missed, the Orange built an efficient offense around its three leading attackers, Gorelina, Saada, and Santita Ebangwese.
“The connection between the six players on the court is so critical that it can be difficult to change,” Yelin said. “Unfortunately for Kendra, her injury was an opportunity, and someone took the opportunity.”