Touching all the Bases

Getting "set" for another season

Posted by: Jeff Huth

Monday, September 1, 2008 12:01 PM

Veteran volleyball fans who attended the State Farm Illini Classic last weekend at Huff Hall undoubtedly noticed several changes in match rules and terminology. I had written in the pages of The News-Gazaette about several of them before the season started.

One of them, however, escaped my attention until Friday's opener. The term "game" is no longer part of the NCAA women's volleyball vocabulary. Instead, teams play best-of-five "sets" to decide a match. The reason for the change? Like many of the others, it's to bring the collegiate game in closer alignment wih international volleyball. The Olympics and other international tournaments call them sets. Now the NCAA does, too.

Other internationally-driven changes include a reduction in the number of points required to win in any of the first four sets. It used to be 30. Now, like the international game, it's 25. The fifth and final set remains 15 points. In all cases, however, teams still are required to win any set by at least two points. In other words, 25-24 doesn't get it done. Has to be 26-24 or 27-25 or ... well, you get the point.

With fewer points required to win, the maximum number of substitutions allowed per set was reduced from 15 to 12. For an Illini team running a tw-setter attack, that's a signfiicant rule to keep in mind. In the so-called 6-2 offense, Illini coach Don Hardin is making double-switches throughout sets as he alternates setters Lizzie Bazzetta and Hillary Haen while also keeping three hitters/blockers in the front row at all times. Hardin and his staff went into the season confident that, in most cases, 12 subs would be enough to last through a set. But they also knew that wouldn't always be the case. In fact, Illinois did run out of subs in one of the sets against Oregon on Saturday and wasforced to complete the set in a 5-1 (one setter) attack.

So, how many subs are allowed in a 15-point Set 5? Would you believe 12? Talk about overkill.
Doesn't make much sense, but maybe the NCAA volleyball leadership will get around to addressing that at some point. As this season's new rules and terminology  prove, they're open to change.

Sometimes, it takes time to get used to changes. In postmatch interview sessions at the State Farm Illini Classic, Hardin and his players repeatedly used the word "game"' instead of "set" (I've got the audio tape to prove it). That's not a criticism. In fact, it's understandable. Folks in the game have been using the term "game" forever. It's going to take time to erase that from the memory banks and plug in a new term.

Wouldn't be surprised if I slipped up, too, while writing about the sport.. Old habits can die hard.

If I do, feel free to give me a hollar. I'm all set to take the heat,

 

 

 

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