Was curious how much practice emphasis is put on NOT hitting the net or sailing it out of play?

Maybe similar to free throws this is a pretty big deal, especially in tight games. It's crazy sometimes a volley might go on forever with such amazing effort to dig/pass/block/spike/etc, to then hit the net on the very next play which counts the same 1 point.

Also it seems Ifenna was the most effective with a brutal power serve. Why don't we work more on developing this part of the game? (Not criticizing at all since it all obviously worked out, just curious)

We benefit of course when other teams do it and I haven't looked up any stats that says we're worse than others. Any thoughts out there?

Watched a former coach podcast on the Kentucky game. They made so many more errors than us and he attributed it to two things: our serves and our middles getting quickly to the pins on defense.

Think about it, in a 25 point set, if the opposing team makes 11 errors (as Kentucky did on one set), you only have to make 14 points outright. If we only make 6 errors, they have to make 19 points.

Error rates goes way up when you are "out of system". To be "in system", on serve-receive the receiver has to place the ball where the setter can run an offensive play. A great serve can cause the setter to scramble, reducing the options, or even a bypass of the setter all together.

The defense reads the first volley and reacts to the options. Fewer options means better defensive pressure against the attack.


Another volleyball coach in film breakdown commented on how "international A&M looked", which is not surprising. He noted that traditionally women's NCAA volleyball avoids hand passing on serve-receive. He attributed it to women having smaller hands, not as strong as men's hands, so most coaches avoid it. However, he shows several instances of A&M players receiving the serve and placing the first ball to the setter by a hand passing ( and not an arm platform).

maybe it is just me but i dont remember us taking serves overhand honestly very much

Also when serving, if you are going to miss do it long and not into the net.

I still see the ace Logan had that just dropped like a rocket and the whole team was like WhereTF did that come from...that was a microcosm of the serving season when Logan had that ace because of how good the serve was

excellent observation there.
let's continue to keep the receiving team out of system.

Our serving during the tournament was much better than the regular season. In fact, we got better and it actually became a strength as opposed to a weakness.

B$Weigem said:

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Our serving during the tournament was much better than the regular season. In fact, we got better and it actually became a strength as opposed to a weakness.

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It was incredible how much the team stepped up their play in the tourney run. Not just serve, but also defense.

As has been said, Jamie wants an aggressive serve. It is something he has addressed every year with maroon club as someone always asks about the number of service errors. He made a comment his first season about watching men's pro/international and that they are so aggressive that there is a really high rate of service errors, but also a high rate of first hit kills if you aren't getting them out of system.

We had some long stretches of trading points in the tourney, so the margins just aren't that big. Jamie talked this season about getting a few 2-3 point runs and keeping your opponent from getting 2-3 point runs winning the game. If you think about the Nebraska 4th set or the Pitt 1st set, siding out on the opponents serve and getting a 2-3 point run wins the game.

It would be interesting to look at more deeply at the outcomes. Service errors and aces are obvious. One of the announces said during one of the tourney games that they thought overpasses on serve receive should count as aces. I recall Ifenna and "blocking" a few of those right back down on the opponents side for a quick kill.

I think a more advanced metric like service wins (aces, overpasses, hitting errors) vs service losses (serving errors and first attack kills) would be more interesting than aces to errors. And you probably just need to be a little bit more on the service wins side and a little bit better than your opponent to get the win.

Also, to the question about how much they work on it, serving js one of the only things the player can work on by themselves. They certainly work on it in practice, but the player is also going to need to put in the time.