In their first two years on the women’s volleyball teams, SU seniors Cheryl Cobbina and Joscie Kaup experienced the thrill of the Big East Championship. Cobbina remembers the upperclassmen showing the younger players how to ‘raise the bar and set the standard.’

Now as seniors, Kaup and Cobbina have the chance to be the upperclassmen and help a young team see what postseason competition looks like.

Kaup and Cobbina will try to lead the team back to the Big East Championship this weekend when the Orange hosts Villanova tonight at 7 p.m. at the Women’s Building, and finishes its regular season schedule Sunday with a matinee game against Seton Hall at 2 p.m.

Before it starts thinking about the postseason, the Orange will have to play well this weekend. SU is in ninth place in the conference with a 6-6 record. Only the top eight teams in the conference make the tournament. Syracuse would almost be assured of a playoff spot with a sweep this weekend, while it would most likely be left out with a loss.

‘We have to go out there and prove it (this weekend)’ Kaup said. ‘The other teams are going to come here and say they’re going to win, too. It’s going to be a dogfight; it’s not going to be easy.’

Being the only seniors on the team, Kaup and Cobbina want to make one last visit, making this weekend’s games all the more important.

‘This team hasn’t gone to the Big East yet,’ Cobbina said. ‘We didn’t go last year. It’s crucial, crucial that we go.’

The seniors know it’s not going to be easy, but with wins this weekend, they could lead the team to the tournament after a one-year hiatus and give many of the starters their first taste. Of the six main starters on the team, three are underclassmen.

‘It’s the thrill of us going and knowing that the competition is going to be great and everyone is going to be playing their hardest,’ Kaup said. ‘It’s a do-or-die tournament, and it’s, like, what you play the game for.’

Cobbina said she thinks the seniors’ experience in getting to the tournament can help the team, but it will take a total team effort.

‘The younger players haven’t gotten this close before,’ Cobbina said. ‘The sophomores and freshmen have never experienced the Big East and got to this position where it was so close, so I think our experience will come in.’

Assistant head coach Carol LaMarche is not surprised by the ambitions of the senior duo.

‘That’s just the kind of people they are,’ LaMarche said. ‘They’re not selfish, they think about the team first, and I know that the really care about the team, and after they leave, they’ll still follow the team and care how we do.’

When their careers are over, Kaup and Cobbina will finish in the ranks of some of SU’s greats. Cobbina ranks sixth in school history for kills in a season, while Kaup holds the honor of having the most kills in a season.

But rather than worry about the stats now, the duo looks to this weekend’s matches and the possibility of giving their younger teammates their first taste of the Big East Championship and do what had been done for them a few years ago.

‘We want to raise that bar,’ Kaup said. ‘We want to make it so it’s not right if we don’t go. It’s always that Syracuse is in the Big East Tournament.’

Published on November 9, 2007 at 12:00 pm