Jing Pu knows what it takes to win.

Pu, the Syracuse volleyball head coach, has 305 NCAA victories, winning more than 65 percent of his matches.

Yet, Syracuse has only three Big East tournament appearances and has finished an average of eighth in the league during Pu’s eight-year tenure.

Last season, a Syracuse team with four freshmen playing key roles got off to a school-record 9-1 start on its way to a 19-12 record. Even with this early success, the Orangewomen managed a 5-8 Big East record, tying Seton Hall for 10th place in the conference.

In 2003, the Orangewomen will open the season a more experienced team with an unquestioned goal.

‘Our goal is very clear to the team and myself,’ Pu said. ‘As a minimum, we want to stay in the top half of the conference, and we should make strides to challenging for a spot in the top four.’

Assistant coach Alexis Dankulic agreed that expectations should improve for next season. She said Syracuse should aim to finish in the top six in the Big East every year. And a bid for the conference tournament is a reasonable next step, she said.

A top-four finish in the Big East means a spot in the conference tournament, which Syracuse hasn’t appeared in since 1999. In Syracuse’s previous appearances in the Big East tourney, a top-six finish in conference play was good enough for a tournament bid.

Virginia Tech and Miami, two of the four teams in last year’s Big East tournament, joined the conference during the last three years, making the tournament harder to reach.

‘Miami joined the conference just last season and made the final 16 of the NCAA Tournament,” Pu said. “The Big East continues to become a more competitive conference.’

To get the Orangewomen ready for conference play, Pu schedules at least four pre-conference tournaments each season. These tournaments, a staple of a college volleyball team’s schedule, lets a team get into the flow of competition. The tournaments also provide a volleyball program a chance to compete against teams from outside its region.

Dankulic said the tournaments also let Syracuse test different lineups.

‘We want to schedule tournaments with a mix of challenging opponents,” Dankulic said, “and the chance to be successful.’

Dankulic said scheduling strategies change with each season. She said with a younger team, such as last year’s group, coaches schedule easier matches. With a veteran lineup, playing tougher teams becomes a priority.

Pu said next year’s lineup of early season opponents is tougher than last season’s. Syracuse will travel to Lexington, Ky., to play Kentucky and Virginia, major-conference teams that SU rarely schedules. In another tournament, Pu said, the Orangewomen will face New Hampshire, a 2002 NCAA Tournament qualifier.

‘We will be traveling to a couple of very strong tournaments,’ Pu said. ‘We will be playing strong teams in our region that we have not seen before.’

Pu said he wants to improve SU’s competition in its annual home tournament, the Syracuse Invitational.

But he has run into budgetary concerns. To attract top teams to a pre-conference tournament, a school needs to offer an attractive hotel and travel package. In the future, Pu wants to change the Syracuse Invitational from a regional event to a national tournament.

Pu and Dankulic said they must be realistic with their goals for the Orangewomen’s future. As a Northeastern school, opportunities for recruiting top talent are limited, and teams (Notre Dame and Miami) from other regions already dominate the Big East.

‘I think the Top 25 is a realistic goal in a really strong season,’ Dankulic said. ‘But I don’t know about the top 10.’

‘Historically,’ Pu said, ‘we need to look at the region as a whole. Penn State is the only team that has been at a nationally high level on a consistent basis. Other teams occasionally get there but not consistently.’

With a defined goal, Pu, who lost his best players each of the last three years, hopes to lead the Orangewomen back near the top of the Big East. This time with a younger group.

‘After three years of losing players,’ Pu said, ‘I finally have a very optimistic vision for next season.’

Published on April 15, 2003 at 12:00 pm