Leonid Yelin has already seen his team’s resilience once.

The Syracuse head coach saw his team drop the first set in last Saturday’s opening match against Bryant University at the Colgate Classic. In a 25-24 hole in the second set, SU responded. Outside hitter Samantha Clarey finished with a kill and an ace to put the set away.

During a three-win weekend, it was an additional positive that Yelin took away from the tournament. And it’s an element the Orange will need to count on in the coming weeks.

“Until they’re losing, everything is OK,” Yelin said. “After losses, they have to work that much harder. They need to see what the other teams were doing that made them better.”

After Syracuse’s success at the Colgate Classic, a winless weekend leaves the team at 3-3 heading into its game against Nebraska-Omaha at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Yelin is trying to build a winning program out of Syracuse, one that competes nationally every year. And the first-year head coach said he hopes to see his team put its resilience to the test and respond to adversity moving forward.

The Orange failed to win a set in all three of the matches at the Bluejay Invitational last weekend against tougher competition than it faced at Colgate.

“It’s definitely a lot tougher,” said defensive specialist Melina Violas. “They’re bigger girls, they can hit a lot harder.”

And tougher competition brings higher expectations for Yelin. He believes his team can work harder and play better every time it practices or competes. Coming from a program in Louisville that made 14 NCAA tournaments in his 15-year tenure, Yelin holds remarkably high standards for his players.

As Yelin attempts to change the culture of a program that has yet to reach an NCAA tournament, he looks for players to learn from losses and push themselves even more.

“It takes a lot of time to build a new culture,” Yelin said. “And it’s everything – how you dress, how you work, how you represent yourself. Every little thing matters.”

Yelin will get a good read on his team’s character and resilience in the next few matches.

No matter how the players respond, Yelin will be looking for more improvement. It takes something spectacular for his players to impress him. Yelin said nothing impressed him about the three wins in the opening weekend.

As one of Yelin’s former players at Louisville, Syracuse assistant coach Stephanie Cantway saw how difficult it was for Yelin to be completely satisfied with his team.

Wins alone simply won’t do it.

“It takes a lot to impress him,” Cantway said.

Yelin said the process to improve and change the culture at Syracuse will be long and tedious. It requires a full commitment from each player. He said improvements in attitude and work ethic are necessary, and they should change even more with every roadblock in the season.

This 0-3 weekend at the Bluejay Invitational is one of those roadblocks the Orange will have to overcome.

Yelin said he knows that Syracuse may not become a top-notch program in the immediate future. But he’s determined that each player fully commits to the learning process and won’t accept anything less than a winning program.

Right now, SU is a .500 team.

To Yelin, that’s far from good enough. The Orange needs to rebound from a disappointing weekend. It’s all a part of Yelin’s process to build a consistent winner.

“It’s a lot of learning. It’s going to be an up-and-down season, but as long as they continue to work and improve themselves, I think we are on the right track,” Yelin said. “Every day, the expectation has to be higher because we will not accept not to be good.”

Published on September 4, 2012 at 1:13 am

Contact Jacob: jspramuk@syr.edu