Polina Shemanova breaks Syracuse’s all-time career kill record

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In the third set against Louisville, Syracuse outside hitter Polina Shemanova notched her 1,699th career kill, becoming the program’s all-time leader in kills and passing Dana Fiume, who held the record for over two decades. She launched from the center of the court, spiking it hard down the middle, which deflected but unable to be kept alive by the Louisville defense.

Shemanova entered the 2022 season ranked sixth, and entering Sunday’s game against Louisville, Shemanova only needed 11 kills to break it following her 15 against Notre Dame on Friday.

A week ago, she earned Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Week honors after a 52-kill weekend between the Orange’s wins over Wake Forest and Virginia Tech. In November 2019 against Louisville, she notched a career-high 36 kills, the most in a single game by a Syracuse player.

From Saint Petersburg, Russia, former head coach Leonid Yelin recruited Shemanova to play at Syracuse after hearing of her through Mariia Levanova, who played for the Orange from 2015 to 2018. The fifth-year graduate student wasn’t a highly touted recruit, but in her freshman year, she recorded 447 kills, the most by a freshman in the program. 

Over her Syracuse career, Shemanova has accrued several accolades, including ACC Freshman of the Year in 2018. She was an American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American honorable mention the same year. In 2018 and 2019, she was an All-ACC First Team selection and was a second team selection in 2021. 

Shemanova missed the spring portion of the COVID-19 adjusted season because of visa issues, spending time with her youth coach in local gyms to maintain her form. She returned for her senior season, where she had 421 kills, putting her 255 away from the record entering 2022 before finally breaking it.