On Sunday, Leonid Yelin registered his 500th career win. But when he spoke about the monumental victory Tuesday he remained levelheaded.

“Normal,” the head coach said when a reporter asked how the win felt.

After a 0-4 start to Syracuse’s Atlantic Coast Conference tenure, the Orange has started to pick up the pace. SU has won three of its last four matches, all on the road.

This weekend the Orange (8-12, 3-5 ACC) will try to continue its success as it faces Georgia Tech (7-13, 1-7) on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Carrier Dome and Clemson (10-9, 4-4) on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Women’s Building.

During the first half of the season, the players had a tendency to get down on themselves. Whether this has to do with the lack of hope or just a physical inferiority to the teams faced early in the season, the team is in better spirits now.

“It feels awesome,” outside hitter Silvi Uattara said. “After we beat Maryland, we got this feeling we can compete with all the teams in ACC.”

Yelin doesn’t feel the team has really done anything different to improve chemistry. Instead, it just happened naturally.

“We didn’t change anything,” Yelin said, “I hope they are learning something. We kept doing what we were doing, it was just a little bit better.”

Setter Erica Handley said keeping a positive attitude could go a long way.

“Yes, I have won in the past,” the freshman said, “but I have also lost in the past, too. You can be down about it for a while and be upset because you lost, but you have to build off those mistakes and be positive for the next game.”

But Yelin insists there’s been no change in morale. It’s a natural transformation that comes with success.

“I think people are always happy when they are winning,” Yelin said.

With the team gaining confidence, other teams have begun to notice. Being an underdog has benefited Syracuse.

“No one expected anything from us because we are a small team,” middle blocker Monika Salkute said. “And we did it so powerful. When we started playing our game they were so scared. You could see it in (Pittsburgh’s) eyes.”

Uattara explained that getting into the heads of the other team is key. Syracuse can target one player and attempt to disrupt her, or intimidate the whole team. Uattara and Salkute both said they could see the other team shaking with fear.

A newfound sense of urgency is beginning to take over.

“We have to beat them,” Salkute and Uattara said simultaneously.

Published on October 23, 2013 at 11:48 pm

Contact Eric: esriter@syr.edu