Editor’s Note: Eighth in a series of 12 volleyball articles recapping the outstanding 2006 season, previewing the 2007 season, giving fans basic volleyball rules, terminology and scoring basics leading up to the season-opening Mizuno Tiger Classic tournament in the Maravich Center on Aug. 24-25.
BATON ROUGE — If the only thing you know about volleyball is what you learned in gym class during high school, then this guide to the basics of competitive, collegiate volleyball will give you the information you need to know when you come to enjoy watching the Tigers win in 2007.
The first thing you will see when you come to a volleyball match is the court. Most people know what a traditional volleyball court looks like, but they may not know all the specifics. A standard court is 18 meters long, or approximately 59 feet, and nine meters wide, or approximately 29 feet, six inches, and is divided at mid-court by a center line where the net is located.
All of the lines on the court are five centimeters wide, or approximately two inches. Unlike football and basketball, if the ball lands on the boundary line, it is considered in and results in a point. The ball must be completely outside of the playing court and the lines for it to be ruled out and result in an error.
Each side of the court has an attack line which separates the front court from the back court. The attack line is three meters from the net, or approximately nine feet, 10 inches. Front row players can attack from anywhere on the court, while back row players can only attack from behind the attack line.
The net is one meter wide, or approximately 39 inches, and 9.5 meters long, or 32 feet, and stands 2.24 meters, or seven feet, four and an eighth inches, high. Two antennae are connected to the net distinguishing the court boundaries. Unlike baseball where hitting the foul pole is considered a fair ball, hitting the antenna in volleyball is considered out and results in an error.
In 2005, the NCAA adopted a tri-color ball for use in championship play and LSU followed suit. The Tigers will use the regulation white, blue and silver ball again in 2007. A standard volleyball weighs between nine and 10 ounces and must have a pressure between 4.3 and 4.6 pounds per square inch.
As the game begins, each team will take the court with six players. The teams will line up with three front row players near the net and three back row players near the baseline. These six players will rotate clockwise from place to place on the court each time their team earns the right to serve.
Most teams consist of a basic set of positions, including a setter – the quarterback of the offense; two outside hitters – the attackers who are located near the antennae on the left side of the court when facing the net; two middle blockers who specialize in defensive blocking but also provide an alternative on offense; and a right side hitter who is also an attacker near the antenna but who is positioned on the right side of the court when facing the net.
In addition, one of the three players on the back row may be substituted by the libero. The libero is a defensive specialist who wears a contrasting uniform from the rest of the team and is responsible for receiving the serve with a dig, digging the ball after an attack and passing the ball to the setter to run the offense. In part 10, you can read more about the libero position.
The setter, as the person who runs the offense, usually receives the ball on the second touch. It is their responsibility to place the ball in the air for the attacker they best think can put the ball on the floor on the opponents’ half of the court. They must be able to receive the ball, read an opponents defense and give the ball to an attacker while moving quickly around the court.
The setter’s first choice is usually to go to an outside or right side hitter, the primary offensive players. Since most sets to the outside are high, the outside and right side hitters may take a longer approach, sometimes even starting from outside the court sideline. Hitters generally relies on a powerful swing, which is commonly known by the slang term “spike”, but may also tip the ball over a block when necessary to earn a statistical kill and earn a point. Hitters must also master passing, since they generally help the libero in receiving the opponent’s serve.
The primary defensive player on the front row is the middle blocker. This position is responsible for setting up a block by sliding from side to side to combine with an outside hitter or right side hitter to form a two-person wall on either side of the court. Offensively, middle blockers typically are involved in very fast attacks from the setter. This is the position usually replaced on the back row by the libero.
Each play is started with a serve, the act in which the back row player on the right side tosses the ball in the air and strikes the ball to send it over the net. Beginning in 2001, the “let serve” has been allowed in collegiate volleyball, which allows play to continue even if a served ball touches the net as long as it continues into the opponents’ court.
Before a player may serve the ball, the up official must authorize play to begin. Once the official blows the whistle to authorize service, the server has eight seconds to serve the ball. One player serves continuously until his or her team commits a fault resulting in a point for the opposing team, after which the opposing team rotates and serves the ball.
At the moment the ball is contacted by the server, each team must be completely within its own side of the court in correct rotation of two rows of three players. If you come to a match, you may notice that the rows are not always neatly lined up like you may have been in high school gym class. This is because at different points in the rotation, players may begin in the correct rotation position, but out of their position.
When an outside hitter starts the match on the left side of the front row, that player must rotate to the center on the next service. When the team is lined up in rotation to receive the serve, the outside hitter will be positioned as close to the outside as she can be without overlapping the person to her left so that she can switch positions and move into her position on the court once the ball is contacted on the service. For that reason, you may see the front row players almost lined up in a straight line perpendicular to the net when the ball is served, then all switch places to get into the proper position to run the offense.
At the point the ball is contacted on the serve, each player in the front row must have at least a part of one foot closer to the center line than both feet of the corresponding back row player. In addition, each right or left side player must have at least a part of one foot closer to the sideline than both feet of the center player in the corresponding row. The server is exempt from this rule and can serve from any position behind the end line as long as she is within the boundaries of the sidelines.
Once the ball is put into play, a team is allowed a maximum of three successive hits to return the ball to the opponent’s side of the court. When the ball is touched on a block, it does not count as one of your teams’ three hits and your team has all three remaining attempts to get the ball to the opposite side of the court. In addition, one player may not contact the ball twice in succession, unless the first touch is on the block.
Play will continue with each team volleying the ball back and forth from one side to the other until a kill or an error is committed. In 2001, the NCAA went from the traditional side-out scoring system to the rally scoring system which awards a point at the end of every rally. Once an error has been committed, the non-committing team earns a point and is awarded the serve.
A match is played in the best three out of five games format. The first four games are played to 30 points, while the fifth game is played to 15. The winning team must win by two points in any game and must win three games to win the match. In part nine, you can read more about the rally scoring system.
Some of the most common errors in volleyball include hitting the ball out of bounds or off of the antennae. The offensive team may also hit the ball more than three times before returning it to the other team’s court or the same player touches the ball twice in succession.
In addition, players can be whistled for lifts or carries, where the ball remains in contact with the player’s body for too long, or the person setting the ball is charged with a double-hit, where the ball does not contact the hands simultaneously and is charged as two successive hits. A front row player may be called for touching the net with any part of their body or clothing while making a play on the ball or touching the opponent’s court with any part of their body except their feet or hands. In all of the above situations, the rally is ended and the opposing team is awarded a point and the serve.
Now that you know what is going on during the match, you can impress your friends with a bit of trivia. Did you know that volleyball was created on Feb. 9, 1895, in Holyoke, Mass., by William G. Morgan? Morgan was a YMCA physical education director and created a new game called Mintonette (as volleyball was called then), which took characteristics from tennis and handball. Mintonette was designed to be an indoor sport less rough than basketball for older members of the YMCA while still requiring a bit of athletic effort.
A match was composed of 9 innings with 3 serves for each team in each inning; and no limit to the number of ball contacts for each team before sending the ball to the opponents’ court. In case of a serving error, a second try was allowed while a ball hitting the net was to be considered a foul (with loss of the point or a side-out) ? except in the case of the first-try serve. After an observer noticed the volleying nature of the game at its first exhibition match in 1896 played at the Springfield YMCA, the game quickly became known as volleyball.
You can now share that bit of knowledge with your friends when you come out watch the Tigers win in 2007. The team will open the season on Aug. 24 against New Orleans in the Maravich Center in the Mizuno Tiger Classic at 7 p.m. The Tigers will then take on Louisiana-Monroe on Aug. 25 at 11 a.m. before closing out the two-day tournament against Saint Louis at 7 p.m. Admission to all volleyball matches is only $5 for adults and $3 for children. Team posters and schedule cards will be available to pick up throughout the tournament.