After the conclusion of Sunday’s match, head coach Leonid Yelin fumed for 36 minutes, conveying his displeasure of the team’s performance so far this season.

Syracuse again looked mentally outmatched, Yelin said, and he questioned whether some of his players deserved to even be in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“We are both watching a lot of matches,” Yelin said. “Some people just mentally and physically … are just not up to ACC.”

Syracuse dropped the first match of the weekend on Friday night to undefeated No. 11 North Carolina in straight sets. In the Orange’s second game of the weekend, it lost in four sets to North Carolina State.

The team seemed to lack the mental strength to win each game, Yelin said. The team just doesn’t seem to have the mental stability to play at the competitive level of the ACC.

“The confidence is not going to go up playing the way we are,” Yelin said. “When we are passing well and moving around well the confidence goes up. We don’t have this.”

Yelin explained that the players seem to be afraid of the consequences. He does not want his players to be afraid of him, he said. To counter this, he is trying to be more of a cheerleader and encourage his team, instead of yelling at them and getting in their faces.

“After the break, coach had a lot of good words for us,” outside hitter Silvi Uattara said. “But after that I don’t know. I was fighting to stay the same all game. I just don’t know what to say really.”

Yelin singled out Uattara as the only hitter currently playing at an ACC level. She has displayed consistent play as of late and is becoming the team’s most valuable player in all facets of the game.

“You’re not playing up to this level of ACC,” Yelin said of his team. “It’s a privilege to have this Syracuse (jersey), and if you’re not up for this we don’t think you can put it on.”

One problem with the team is a lack of formidable players, Yelin said. This stems from the fact that to get good quality players, the team has to win. But to win, it needs good players.

Yelin believes that if he can successfully recruit mentally capable players from out of the country, the American-born players will come. The biggest issue with the team is that they do not seem to be able to compete mentally with the other teams, Yelin said.

Coaching can only do so much if the talent is not there.

“We need contenders,” Yelin said, “we don’t need pretenders.”

Published on October 6, 2013 at 11:56 pm

Contact Eric: esriter@syr.edu