Propped up against a wall after practice in the Women’s Building, Syracuse middle blocker Samantha Hinz wore two hefty ice packs – one on her right knee, the other on her right shoulder — and a frown to match.

After a long weekend that saw SU lose two of four matches, Hinz was trying to recover physically and mentally.

‘I would’ve liked to win, but I’m okay,’ Hinz said.

Hinz and the Orange (5-2) were banged up in two nonconference losses against Utah State and Utah Valley last weekend, but the team will have an opportunity to rebound against weaker competition this weekend at the Blackbird Invitational. SU will take on the host Long Island, Temple, and Lehigh, three teams with a combined record of 7-11 this season. Syracuse plays Long Island on Friday and Temple and Lehigh on Saturday.

Only Lehigh (3-2) has a winning record of the three.

Assistant coach Kelly Morrisroe said the team should get back on track against the lesser opponents after the tough tests in Utah.

‘We should do well this weekend if we play the way we know we can play,’ Morrisroe said. ‘That’s something we were inconsistent doing, and we learned what can happen the hard way.’

If the SU coaches are looking for consistency, turning on the game film of last weekend’s Utah State Tournament won’t help. At times, the Orange was dominant — both at the net and in the backcourt in sweeps against Idaho State and Texas State last Saturday.

But the Orange couldn’t adjust fast enough against Utah State in last Friday’s loss. A battle at the net played into the hands of the Aggies, an opponent with 10 players over six feet tall. The SU team that muscled its way to season-opening wins at home with blocks and kills couldn’t rely on that strategy.

Outside hitter Noemie Lefebvre had 18 digs to reach 1,000 for her career, but SU couldn’t hang with the Aggies, falling in four sets. Lefebvre said SU simply didn’t have an answer for Utah State.

‘They were the better team in almost every way,’ Lefebvre said. ‘We needed to change up what we were doing, and we didn’t.’

SU stayed in Utah after the tournament to play a nonconference game against Utah Valley on Monday. The Orange jumped out to a two-set lead, but allowed the Wolverines to storm back and take the match.

Like the Utah State loss, SU failed to make key adjustments. Morrisroe said in-game adjustments are a work in progress for this young team.

‘We never want to say something isn’t working, but we have to change strategies sometimes,’ Morrisroe said. ‘Come Big East play, the kinks should be ironed out.’

A banged up Hinz said the challenging nonconference schedule to start the season will only help this team. The tough competition will force the Orange to play at a higher level to earn wins.

It will be especially valuable to an SU team relying heavily on freshmen early on.

‘I really liked how we scheduled increasingly competitive games early on,’ Hinz said. ‘Playing against schools that can challenge us will only help us improve as a team—especially the freshmen who haven’t seen different styles of play before.’

And after last year’s team got out to a school-record 17-0 start against some easy nonconference opponents, some early-season adversity could be good for the program.

The Orange should be well-prepared to take on the rigors of the Big East conference with better early-season tests. Rather than getting battered in conference play and missing the NCAA tournament completely as SU did last season, it should at least put up a fight.

But this weekend’s Blackbird Invitational will be key despite the weaker competition. SU must re-establish its confidence after two very different, but equally deflating losses last weekend.

‘We know that we can play well,’ junior setter Laura Homann said. ‘We just want to play well with consistency.’

nctoney@syr.edu

Published on September 7, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Nick: nctoney@syr.edu | @nicktoneytweets