The Syracuse women’s basketball team may as well add a new item to its uniforms. In the past two years, three Orange post players have worn a boot on one of their feet to help alleviate their respective foot injuries.

And there have been even more injuries inhibiting Syracuse this season. When SU faces No. 21 Notre Dame tonight at 7:30 in the Carrier Dome, the Irish will see a Syracuse squad not fully developed partly because of its injury problems.

After Sara Antolick wore the boot all of last season, Lina Lisnere and Brittany Smith donned the apparatus this season. In addition to those injuries, Tracy Harbut suffered an ankle injury earlier this season, and junior guard Ashley McMillen is out indefinitely with an unspecified illness.

Though all but McMillen and Lisnere are the only ones out of action now, the injuries have prohibited the development of the team.

‘In all my years, I have never been so significantly (affected) by injuries as this team has this year,’ SU women’s basketball coach Keith Cieplicki said. ‘Not even close. They say, ‘If you’re in it long enough everything happens to you.’ It’s just been a little unfortunate because I definitely think we would be in pretty good shape right now if we had everybody here.’

The injuries to the Orange (9-11, 2-7 Big East) have been spread out during the season.

Actually, Lisnere has suffered two injuries this season. Before her current problem – a fractured shin – Lisnere suffered a foot injury in mid-November. With that hobbled foot, she wore a padded, black boot wherever she went. Whether it was attending class, practice or any social events, Lisnere trudged around with that boot no matter how uncomfortable it felt. While she had the foot problem, she played in six sporadic games.

‘I was really happy I could run and play,’ said Lisnere of when she could play. ‘But on the other hand, I just felt limited. I didn’t feel I played my best at all in those six games. All of the games I played through pain and I couldn’t do things I normally do.’

Cieplicki said he wants Lisnere to redshirt because she is likely out the rest of the season. But Cieplicki said he has to wait until the season is through.

Antolick, the one who was the first to wear the boot, has been wearing a knee brace after tearing her right meniscus on Nov. 11. Smith returned on Dec. 8 after spending several weeks on the bench wearing the boot.

Harbut and McMillen were the other two players with injuries. Harbut sprained her ankle on Nov. 2, four days before SU’s exhibition opener. As one of the veteran stabilizers at the guard position, the Orange played its first game against Bishops with McMillen and Jenny Eckhart in that spot instead.

McMillen has shown flashes of her hot-shooting carried over from her playing days at Monroe Community College in Rochester. But her shooting was inhibited at the beginning of the season due to an injury to her right hand suffered against Buffalo on Nov. 20. Nearly three weeks later, McMillen scored 16 points against Massachusetts off 5-of-11 shooting from 3-point range. But sometime after her last game against Marquette on Jan. 14, she has sat out due to an unspecified illness.

With players bowing out at different times, Cieplicki has continuously tinkered with different lineups. Anytime he saw progress with one, it seemed as if one of the key players would step down. Up until now, Cieplicki has employed 12 different starting combinations.

‘I appreciate how important it is to be healthy,’ Lisnere said. ‘I never knew before such unexpected things could happen to me. Now I just know how important it is when you’re healthy and you have to appreciate it.’

Published on January 30, 2006 at 12:00 pm