Head coach Leonid Yelin knew he had a scholarship available for the 2014 season. While he recruited, he found right-side hitter Stacey Smith at the University of Georgia.

Yelin had no intentions of starting Smith after her transfer to Syracuse, but due to injuries at outside hitter, he’s been forced to start her six times this season and play her at a position she’d never played before.

It hasn’t been successful for Smith and the Orange. Her lone season for SU (8-15, 1-10 Atlantic Coast) has disappointed Yelin as she’s finished four contests with more attack errors than kills — most recently against Louisville on Friday.

Smith played two positions in four years at Georgia: middle blocker initially and right-side hitter in her last two years. But she’s struggled to develop her footwork and communication at outside hitter with the Orange.

“I’m used to hitting off of one foot. The slide approach which is kind of like a layup in basketball and the two-footed approach on the outside is totally different,” Smith said. “It’s the normal volleyball approach, but it’s not what I’m used to.”

For the slide approach as a right-side hitter, Smith stepped left, right, left and leaped using her left foot, finishing the play with a spike.

Outside hitters launch using two feet. It involves a four-step approach in which Smith starts on the right foot before alternating feet, jumping off both and plucking the ball out of the air and spiking it.

When Yelin recruited Smith, SU had four hitters in Gosia Wlaszczuk, Nicolette Serratore, Valeriya Shaipova and Silvi Uattara. Since then, Wlaszczuk was converted to setter and Serratore and Shaipova suffered season-ending injuries.

Smith has played in 67 of the Orange’s 86 sets as SU has searched for an option to complement Uattara. They haven’t found her.

Wlaszczuk’s rapport with Uattara, Shaipova and Monika Salkute is naturally better than the one she has with Smith too, as they’ve played together nearly three years.

“I know what (other teammates) can give me, I know how they’re handling pressure. Before we had (Shaipova). (Smith) wasn’t even practicing on the side with me,” Wlaszczuk said.

Meanwhile, Smith has only been with the team for a summer and three-quarters of the season. Building a relationship with a setter in less than a year is difficult, but adding a mid-season position change ratchets up the difficulty. Wlaszczuk playing setter for the first time in her career increases the difficulty.

Against Louisville on Friday, Smith appeared to start her approach to the net and stop around the 10-foot line, caught in limbo. Wlaszczuk then set a ball to the 10-foot line and Smith could barely jump off the ground as she pounded the ball into the Cardinals blocker’s hands.

“First of all, I wouldn’t set (to) her, too. How am I supposed to feel? Why am I setting (to Stacey)? I said, ‘Gosia, you feel she’s somebody who’s struggling, leave her for a while.’” Yelin said. “Find out when you know its going to be a good situation, one block and you know she’s going to crush it.’”

Yelin wants Smith to emerge as an option to make it harder for other teams to game plan. Uattara and Wlaszczuk are established options, but having Smith and Salkute would make SU’s attack more lethal.

The head coach believes the team could have success offensively. But time is running out for Smith and SU’s season.

Said Yelin: “If Stacey was giving us more as a hitter, (it) would be (a) huge help. And hopefully, someday it’s going to happen.”

Published on November 4, 2014 at 12:08 am

Contact Chris: cjlibona@syr.edu | @ChrisLibonati