Setter Lauren Woodford thrives in increased role for SU

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In order to practice with her Northern Lights Junior Volleyball team, then-13-year-old Lauren Woodford had a 75-mile round trip. She rode the bus from near her house to downtown Minneapolis, met her father, William Woodford, at the bus stop and then drove with him to Burnsville, Minnesota. 

When practice ended — sometimes after 10 p.m. — they drove all the way home. The travel created “really long days” for the family, William said, but it helped Woodford build independence at a young age.

“Doing things like riding a metro bus when she was 13 years old…most kids would freak out at even the thought of doing that,” William said jokingly.

Woodford has a history of taking on extra responsibilities for volleyball, especially when it came to getting noticed by recruiters or recovering from injury. Woodford, now a senior with Syracuse, has stepped into an increased role for the team. This season, Woodford has become the Orange’s primary setter, leading the team with 215 assists through 10 matches while splitting time with sophomore Riley Hoffman. 

Syracuse head coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam compared the setter to being a point guard for basketball and a quarterback for football, pointing to Woodford’s communication and organization as qualities that have allowed her to do a “tremendous job” in her new role. 

Woodford considers “making the best out of every pass” to set her teammates up for scoring opportunities to be the most important job of the position. She sharpened her skills at 12 years old by imitating volleyball technique videos on YouTube, modeling herself after Penn State’s Micha Hancock and Wisconsin’s Lauren Carlini — two of the country’s top setters at the time. 

“I would watch (each video) and be like, ‘Okay, let’s go practice this exact thing,” Woodford said. “Then in the winter, when we couldn’t use the court in the backyard, I would go in the basement with my dad and practice defensive moves and diving on the carpet.”

William pointed to footwork, technique and scoring around the ball as key focuses for Woodford throughout her development. 

Woodford’s vertical is another key factor to her game, her father said. At 5-foot-8, she’s one of the shortest players on the court. But she had the highest vertical of anyone in the Northern Lights club, William said, which helped her close the height gap. Her height comes with benefits too, such as retrieving low balls and getting passes up, she said. 

After sitting out last season with a medical redshirt, Woodford spent the majority of this offseason focused on getting healthy, Ganesharatnam said. It wasn’t her first time battling through an injury. At 15 years old, a stress fracture in her foot almost sidelined her from competing in national tournaments, William said. 

But after rehabbing, Woodford returned for the tournaments, albeit in a limited capacity, William said. Rather than playing setter, she only played in the back row to avoid aggravating the injury. 

“Nothing really fazes her too much,” William said about her high school injury. “Obviously, (upon) hearing the diagnosis, she was in tears. But generally, she doesn’t get flustered too easily and at some point (her mindset) is just, ‘Okay, I got to get back to work.’”

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When it came time to getting known by colleges, she wanted to make herself as noticeable as possible. During the recruitment process, Woodford’s parents filmed all her matches so that she could create recruiting videos for coaches. She sent out “massive amounts of emails” and called coaches just to get her name out there, she said.

Syracuse emerged as an option for Woodford late in the recruitment process, both Woodford and William said. She committed within two and half months of SU’s first communication with her, pointing out the engineering program as an attraction to the school. 

Syracuse’s coaching staff wanted Woodford to graduate high school a year early since it had an opening at the setter position. Woodford said she never planned on graduating high school early, but it “felt like just the right choice” for her.

“I hate the feeling of having regrets,” Woodford said. “You never know — you can always surprise yourself. (Whether) with going for a ball you don’t think you can get or trying to make a play, sometimes it just works out.”