More than halfway through his first season as head coach, Leonid Yelin and Syracuse women’s volleyball team have lost five of their last six games.

With 12 games remaining, the team is looking to get back on track this weekend. The Orange (8-10, 0-3 Big East) takes on South Florida (10-7, 2-2 Big East) at noon Friday and Pittsburgh (10-8, 1-3 Big East) at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Women’s Building.

Yelin and his assistant, Stephanie Cantway, are working around injuries and adjusting lineups to put out as successful of a team as possible. Yelin, an experienced postseason coach who led Louisville to 14 NCAA tournaments, admits his first season at the helm has been challenging.

“As a coach, it’s been very challenging,” Yelin said. “Am I enjoying it now? No.”

Yelin said he knew the team would get off to slow start this season. But that doesn’t make losing any easier.

“This is my life,” he said. “This is everything for me. I’ve been married to volleyball for so many years. I joke sometimes, and even my wife accepts that volleyball is my first wife.”

Senior defensive specialist Zoe Guzman has played under three coaches in her college career: former coach Jing Pu, Kelly Morrisroe, who took over for Pu when he was relieved of his duties last season, and now for Yelin.

“It’s definitely a huge change from the previous coaching staff,” Guzman said. “It’s a good change. Every transition period is going to have its ups and downs and right now everyone is struggling with the new freshmen coming in and adapting to the new style.”

Yelin has proven himself as one of the better coaches in the conference, posting a 366-112 record at Louisville. The hardest part about changing coaches, Guzman said, is becoming accustomed to how a coach wants things done on and off the court.

“They’re so different from the other ones,” Guzman said. “We’re trying our best. We still want to win. I think that’s the main goal of everyone and we’re trying everything possible in our power to do that.”

Last year as a freshman, libero Melina Violas started the season playing under Pu. When he was relieved of his duties in October, like the rest of the team, Violas had to adapt to Morrisroe’s coaching style.

Now, she is playing under Yelin and Cantway. The coaching staff had a lot of work to do when they took over the program, Violas said.

“They are building a completely new tradition,” Violas said. “They’ve changed everything from the way we are supposed to eat, the way we’re supposed to practice, how we’re supposed to be on and off the court. It is a huge transition for all of the girls on the team and we have to keep with it and keep implementing it knowing that it will work and it will pay off.”

Published on October 5, 2012 at 1:30 am

Contact Austin: arpollac@syr.edu