Formation, personnel changes help Syracuse find winning formula

Syracuse head coach Leonid Yelin likes to make substitutions and tinker with his lineup. He’ll usually play up to nine players and rotate through almost everyone who’s healthy.

But on Sunday, he played his starting six almost the entire match, with the only substitutions coming deep into the third set.

“We were winning, right?” assistant coach Derryk Williams said of the lack of subs. “The girls that were on the floor were playing hard, they were making good decisions.”

On Sunday against Virginia, Syracuse played arguably its most consistent and complete game of the season, earning its first home win. The Orange led from start to finish with suffocating defense that limited a Virginia squad to just 21 total kills, only two more than Polina Shemanova had individually.

Yelin found a winning lineup and stuck with it for the first time this season.

Prior to Sunday, Syracuse (5-8, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) constantly shifted formations and personnel in search of an effective combination. But against Virginia, the Orange made no substitutions until the final set, when the match was nearly over. It was a stark change for the Orange: In its match against Duke on Oct. 6, SU made constant personnel changes and utilized nine players, as middle blockers Dana Gardner and Izzy Plummer were the only healthy players not to play.

“We showed up and we played for three straight sets,” Williams said after the win over UVA. “And it’s the first time this year we played three straight without huge lulls in between.”

One reason SU has rotated so many players is because of injuries. Liberos Aliah Bowllan and Berkley Hayes, outside hitters Kendra Lukacs and Viktoriia Lokhmanchuk and middle blocker Abby Casiano have all missed time with ailments. Yelin said the injuries have affected formations and game plans in almost every game, often making changes right before matches depending on who was available to suit up.

After qualifying for its first NCAA tournament berth in program history last season, roster turnover has led to constant lineup experimentation for Yelin. Eight players from last year’s roster graduated or transferred, while only six freshmen have come in to fill out the SU roster.

Against Wake Forest on Oct. 4, SU was bolstered by Lukacs’ first appearance of the season, as she returned from an injured shoulder. With shoulder limitations and Bowllan still sidelined, Lukacs played libero.

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Still, the senior’s return didn’t solve all of the Orange’s issues. After dropping the first set, Yelin switched from a 6-2 formation to a 5-1 in the second. With a 6-2, SU plays with two setters behind its four frontline players, but with their 5-1, a backline setter pushes up to form a five-person front row.

“When you have a 6-2, it’s kind of just everybody has a responsibility,” Williams said. “But as soon as the setter is involved (in a 5-1), people kind of freak out a little bit more.”

The change had an immediate effect as SU took the set, with setter Elena Karakasi moving further forward into a frontline role, taking on a more aggressive role. Karakasi often teamed up with middle blockers and outside hitters to take away attacking lanes. As a front line setter offensively, Karakasi manipulated defenses by rising up to receive passes, sometimes sending kills into soft spots of opposing defense, but more often dishing passes to SU’s hitters.

The threat Karakasi poses either freezes opposing blockers or draws them in, allowing the Orange’s hitters clearer attacking lanes with less blockers to stuff their hits, Williams said.

Since the switch against Wake Forest, Karakasi has largely continued in her frontline role, often combining with freshman Marina Markova. Markova had transitioned from her normal position as an outsider hitter to SU’s premier middle blocker. She utilized her 6-foot-4 frame to thwart opposing team’s attacks and has a team-high 19 blocks since moving to the middle in SU’s Oct. 6 match against Duke. On Wednesday night, Yelin said Markova is likely out for the season.

Despite the positional shifting, SU still had no wins to show for its effort. But, with Bowllan’s return from her ankle injury last Friday against No. 3 Pitt, Syracuse found the solution to its lineup conundrum, at least for one set. Behind what Williams called one of Bowllan’s best games in an Orange uniform, Syracuse found itself with an unexpected set point, up 24-23 in the first set. Though SU failed to convert the set point and lost in straight-sets, it was a building block for Sunday’s win against Virginia, Bowllan said.

The Orange are as healthy as they’ve been all season, and now, they have a formation that works.

“Whether I’m here or not, whether someone else is here or not, and pray that that doesn’t happen,” Bowllan said. “I think it’s still a team sport, it’s not just one person.”