Syracuse volleyball head coach Jing Pu was relieved of his duties Monday in the middle of his 17th season at SU.

The two-time Big East Coach of the Year took the helm for SU in 1995 and led the Orange to 15 winning seasons in 16 campaigns. The Orange is 13-8 overall this season and 3-3 in the Big East, with nine games remaining.

‘We appreciate Coach Pu’s years of service,’ Syracuse Athletic Director Daryl Gross said in a statement released by SU Athletics. ‘We will look to take the program to the highest level going forward and give our student-athletes the opportunity to compete for championships.’

Pu said he did not expect to be fired in a phone interview on Tuesday. The former head coach declined to comment on the reasons behind the firing, but said Gross did not attend the Monday meeting in which Pu was informed his time at SU was over. The SU Athletics administration made the decision with Syracuse’s best interest in mind, said Renee Baumgartner, SU deputy athletic director and chief of staff.

Baumgartner said the athletic department has many discussions and evaluates each program throughout the year. After looking at volleyball, it was decided that a coaching change was needed for the program moving forward.

Assistant coach Kelly Morrisroe will step in as interim head coach and Matt Soderstrom will serve as the interim associate head coach for the rest of the season.

Though Pu was surprised by the decision, he is optimistic about the program’s future.

‘The volleyball team is not in trouble,’ Pu said. ‘The team is in good shape. They are mentally and physically well prepared for the rest of the season. I am very confident that the team will do well in the second half of the season.’

Pu had been the second-longest tenured head coach at Syracuse and enjoyed a decorated career, leading the Orange to nine 20-win seasons. At the time of his firing, Pu had a career coaching record of 478-267. His firing comes just one season after he guided the Orange to a program-best 17-0 start.

For Pu, the journey started long before he arrived at Syracuse 17 years ago.

He first learned the game of volleyball while he was a student at Beijing Sport University. Pu excelled at the sport and the Chinese government eventually sent him to the Chinese National Volleyball Coaches Program so he could further learn the ins and outs of volleyball.

Pu spent four years coaching the professional women’s team in the Qinghai Province, but was searching for a way to leave China and begin a new career in the United States. In the early 1980s, Pu left China for the United States and became a graduate student at Utah State University.

He was hired as a graduate assistant at Utah State and went on to have success coaching at California State at Chico, California University of Pennsylvania and Central Connecticut State before landing at Syracuse.

This year, the Orange is currently in position to earn the eighth and final spot in the Big East tournament. In the middle of a winning season, the players were caught off guard by the timing.

‘It was definitely, I think, a surprise overall because it was in the middle of the season,’ said Noemie Lefebvre, a senior outside hitter. ‘But, like I said, if the administration felt like this was the best decision to benefit our program and our team, then that was up to them to make the decision at that moment.’

It came as a surprise to senior Ashley Williams as well. But Williams said the players need to focus on what they can control.

‘I don’t think any of us expected it, but, again, it wasn’t our choice,’ Williams said. ‘It was an administrative choice, so we’re kind of just focusing on the next nine matches of the season and all we can do is just continue to roll with the punches.’

Pu was the face of the program for more than 15 years, but the athletic department decided it was time for a change. After assessing the program, Baumgartner said, the change was made to help the program reach its full potential.

Said Baumgartner: ‘We were looking at the overall picture of the program and decided that there are a lot of variables that went into this decision and we wanted to move forward.’

sebail01@syr.edu

cjiseman@syr.edu

—Staff Writer David Wilson contributed reporting to this article.

Published on October 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm