Spring Break
The Daily OrangeVB | With 26 games left, Kaup looks to extend her digs record
By Jesse Caputo
Posted: 9/7/07, 12:20 AM EST Section: Sports
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This past weekend in Akron, Ohio, Kaup broke the Syracuse all-time digs record of 1,791 set by Rachel Watson eight years ago. In light of her accomplishment, she was also named Big East Player of the Week.
This weekend, Kaup and the Orange square off in the Big Orange tournament at Manley Field House against Princeton, Fordham and Texas Tech.
"To break a school record, one thing has to be in common: they have to be a starting player from day one, and that's exactly what happened to Joscie," said SU head coach Jing Pu. "As a freshman, she already demonstrated some technique and made contributions to the team's success right away."
As a freshman four years ago, Kaup had no real goals in mind, let alone breaking a school record. Freshmen tend to have a hard time setting their own goals, Kaup said; they try to aspire to be like the older girls on the team until they know what is expected of them.
Most of the time, it isn't easy to find out what is expected from a coach, and in a large number of cases, players sit out their freshman year due to a lack of spots on the starting team or needing time to adjust to the pace of the game.
After a freshman year in which she stacked up 457 digs, Kaup decided that her goal would be to set a new personal high in digs each year. In her sophomore year, Kaup tallied up 514, followed by 685 last year when she broke the single-season record for SU.
Pu talked about the intricacies of her position - a position which Kaup seemed to master upon arriving at Syracuse.
"You have three different levels," Pu said. "One is you let the ball drop, another one is you touch the ball, but you have poor control. You need to get to the ball and control it to get it to a certain spot. She has very good reaction speed and was able to react to the hard-driven balls. Her technique was very solid."
Talking to her parents this past summer, Kaup realized she was going to need a lot of digs to break last year's record. As it is, she has broken the career mark only seven matches into the season and still has 26 matches left in the schedule.
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