NEW ARTICLE: It Starts With The First Pass

In volleyball, the hitters and setters get most of the glory. The setter is like a quarterback and puts the ball in position for the hitter who is like a wide receiver because they get to crush it to the floor or tool it off an opposing player to score points. Crowds love to see hitters crush the ball and score. After the match, the write ups and headlines are almost always about hitters and setters and box scores focus on kills, blocks and assists.

What many people don't realize is that it all starts with the first pass. It’s the back row defenders who are the "linemen" of a volleyball team. They get overlooked and very seldom make the headlines. But those of us that know the game, know these players start it all with the most difficult skill of the game, the first pass.


Passing may well be the least glamorous of all volleyball techniques. It is usually appreciated only by players and coaches who realize its importance. Since the advent of the forearm pass in the 1950's, many volleyball coaches at all levels of play, find themselves spending an inordinate amount of practice time in perfecting this skill. Some of the variables that make it difficult to successfully pass the ball are the varying ball speeds, angles, and unpredictable flight paths associated with float serves and block deflections. (1)

Learning to pass a volleyball takes time. Through experience we learn the flight, the trajectory of a volleyball. Serve receive in particular is an art. It takes thousands upon thousands of repetitions to understand and recognize the movement of a jump serve or float serve. (2)

Reading the flight of the volleyball, proper movement to the ball, and the touch and feel are essential to the art of passing. Repetition, repetition, repetition is the best teacher of these elements as a whole. But once it is mastered, it is beautiful to watch a great libero dance around the court to consistently get them self in position to pass. Without great passing, a team cannot be great. (2)

The back row players seldom receive credit for winning matches, but great teams all have very good back row players that deserve to be recognized. This past weekend, Paige Vargas was voted to the All Tournament Team at the Notre Dame tournament. Paige said she was "surprised" but obviously psyched about the honor. And she should be. She’s worked hard in her short time as a Flyer to improve her passing and defense to help this team. Paige is only a sophomore and her development along with the rest of the back row players, will be key to how far this team goes in the postseason. Opponents have studied film and they know they can attack our best passer senior Amanda Cowdrey or go after a couple sophomores or freshman. It’s a team effort in the back row, and everyone, including Paige is taking their game to a higher level through hard work and breaking down film.

"We do a lot of film study on hitter tendencies," said Amanda. Each hitter on an opposing team has favorite shots. As a defender you need to understand what shot a particular player is most likely to hit.

While talking to Paige, Amanda, Allyson Morey and Rachael Broerman this week, I asked them to outline for fans what their responsibilities are in the back row when the Flyers serve the ball. They provided the following break down, and remember that all of this occurs in about three seconds or less:

1) The server contacts the ball.

2) Our back row defenders move into position and watch for an overpass off our serve, which only happens occasionally, but they have to be prepared for it.

3) As the opponent passes the ball to their setter, our defenders are watching the setter to be ready to cover a dump to an open hole on the floor or to determine which hitter the setter is likely to set.

4) Our back row defenders change their position based upon where the set is going and our block. Their goal is to get into position to cover the power shot around the block but also be ready for a roll shot or deflection off our block. And while they are doing all of this, they are also remembering the tendencies of the hitter so they are ready to dig the high-probability shot from each hitter.

5) Assuming that the ball is hit to one of our back row defenders, they now have to make a perfect pass to our setter Jess Yanz who will be ahead of the 10-foot line. When our defenders dig the opponent’s attack and deliver that pass, Jess reads the opponents block and sets our open hitter for that crushing kill everyone wants to see and it all starts with the back row.

Additionally, our back row players are responsible for serve receive, which is slightly different. Last year UD used mostly two back row players (Paige and Amanda) for serve receive. You will hear the phrase she can "pass half the court." That is used to describe when a team only has two players taking serve receive, thus they must each be able to cover and pass half the court. This year UD has used both two and three serve receivers at times. Most teams use three so that the receivers have less ground to cover.

Three years ago, in the St Louis match at Frericks that featured the "marathon point", St Louis was such an aggressive serving team, then head coach Tim Horsmon used ONE serve receiver covering the entire court. That receiver was Adrienne Green. UD needed the best pass possible so that setter Erin Schroeder would have all her hitter options available. Adrienne was our best passer, but covering the entire court is almost insane. However, the strategy worked and UD won that match in 5 sets. Coaches game-plan who they are going to attack on serve and your back row players have to be ready to handle the attack.

Since box scores and stats don’t have passing numbers, you can often judge the Flyers’ passing by looking at the number of hitting attempts by our middle hitters. If the passes are too far off the net it is very difficult to set the ball to your middles. Most teams run an outside-hitter offense. UD runs a middle-dominated offense. So generally, if our middles are getting 20+ attempts in a match, our passing is solid and our back row players are having a good day passing.

When asked how they would rate the team’s passing so far this year on a scale of 1 to 10 the group said that they would give themselves an '8' but Rachael was quick to point out "There is always room for improvement". They also said that their passing is "MUCH BETTER" than last season and is being tracked and emphasized more this year.

They also pointed out that team improvement was the emphasis this year and this required working together and communicating better on the court as a back row defensive unit versus only individual improvement. An example would be returning serve against a really good server. There isn't a lot of time to decide which player is going to take the ball. The more you play and practice together the easier it becomes to work as a defensive unit.

One of our back row players this year is Allyson Morey, a setter by trade. She said, "I'm not tall enough and don't jump high enough to play in the front row here". But, Allyson has been used on defense and as a Serving Specialist because of her ability to mix up her accurate serves. It’s big when a server can hit two consecutive aces in a match. In recent history, UD fans will remember Jamie-Lee Richards serving up two consecutive aces in the 4th set against Illinois three years ago saving several match points to propel UD to a 4 set victory. Last year Rachael B came up big with two consecutive aces against St Louis in the 5th set. Those aces buried SLU and UD went on to win the A-10 tournament championship.

It’s very rare a player serves more than two consecutive aces, but last week Allyson served FOUR consecutive against Notre Dame and a fifth one later in the match. Just ask Notre Dame how tough serve receive can be. And while Allyson comes in as a Serving Specialist, she is also responsible for back row defense while in the rotation. As a setter, she understands the importance of a good pass and knows that getting time on the court this year will help her defense in years to come when playing setter. Opposing teams like going after setters when they are in the back row. If they can force the ball to the setter for the first pass, someone else has to set the ball to the hitters. And, setters aren’t defensive specialists, so they usually aren’t the best passers on the team. That forces a team out-of-system and limits who is available to hit the ball.

"I think it fires up the team when a setter makes a great dig," Allyson said. When Allyson is on the floor, her third area of responsibility is to be that second setter. So when an opponent hits at Jess, UD has Allyson to make the set during her half rotation on the court. It may only look like Allyson’s only coming in to serve, but there is a lot more going on and it’s a big responsibility for a freshman.

When you see that next great set and kill remember all of the work that was put in by the ladies responsible for UD’s back row defense, Rachael B, Rachel K, Paige, Amanda and Allyson to make that possible. "Without great passing, a team cannot be great"

Awards This Week

Lindsay Fletemier was named MVP of the Notre Dame Invitational. Becky Novacek and Paige Vargas were named to the All Tournament team. Congrats to all three.
Lindsay was also named A10 player of the week.


THIS WEEK

The conference season begins this weekend with road trips to St Louis and Duquesne.

St Louis

This is going to be a tough match. Even though St Louis is 5-7 at this time the match will be a 'Blue Out' which will guarantee a nice, loud crowd. UD's non conference schedule on the road against Minnesota and Nebraska should have them ready for the crowd.

St Louis has eight freshmen on the roster. They are playing a freshman setter, libero and middle blocker. UD has a huge advantage in experience but the crowd should help St Louis play their best.

Here is a link to the St Louis page http://www.slubillikens.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/092210aaa.html

They are lead by Alyssa Deno (jr outside) with 3.54 kills per set Senior outside hitter Megan Boken is averaging 3.07 kills and 3.17 digs per set. Their freshman setter is getting 10.83 assists per set. Freshman middle blocker Andrea Beaty leads the team with 31 blocks.

Duquesne

Duquesne is 11-4 but none of their victories have come against high-level competition. Their losses have come to Wisconsin, Loyola, Purdue and Syracuse.

Their freshman outside hitter Allison Foschia from Ohio was voted A10 rookie of the week so she will bear watching.

In their previous match against Kent State the team had four players with double/doubles which is impressive. Svorinic (match-best 49 assists, 13 digs), Scheirman (13 kills, 16 digs), Wright (10 kills, 16 digs) and Foschia (team-high 16 kills, 15 digs).

We will have a much better idea of what to expect from Duquesne after Friday's matches, they play Xavier on Friday.

Hope to see you at the Frerick's Center on October 1st for the conference home opener.

Here are the dates for chalk talks with Coach Sheffield. If you want to learn more about the preparation that goes into a volleyball match this is a great way to start.

October Oct 2 vs. Fordham; doors open at 4:45pm, chalk talk starts at 5:15pm
Oct 29 vs. Xavier; doors open at 4:45pm, chalk talk starts at 5:15pm
Nov 14th vs St Louis; doors open at 11:45am, chalk talk starts at 12:15pm

Coach Sheffield and a guest will be speaking. In Room 201 B in Frericks in the Athletics Practice Facility.


Source 1) http://w4.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/view/2336

Source 2) http://coachrey.com/tag/karch-kiraly/