(Multiple readers have written to compliment yesterday’s blog re Friday’s match vs Illinois, written in my absence, by the love of my life. I failed to note that in uploading the piece to GopherVBallRocks, I made a few small edits, partly based on data from the official U of M volleyball website. One of my edits was to correct what I thought was an error she made.
The love of my life gave the score of the 5th set as 15-12, and noted that the final point of the match came on a service error by Illinois. But the Gopher site’s recap of the same 5th set said that after a kill by Rollins made the score 13-11 lead, the Gophs won the set 15-11 on back-to-back Illini errors. And if the Gophs had gone from a 13-11 lead to a 15-11 victory, these “two errors” had to be attack errors, not service errors. And for some unexplainable reason, I trusted the Gopher site’s account over that of the love of my life.
But as we now know, the real score was 15-12, and the love of my life insists it was a service error! (You’d think a guy married just short of 50 yrs would know better.)
Reader R.A. ask why Samedy sometimes seems to hit from the left side; isn’t she our “left-side hitter?”
JOHN: Good eye R.A. I learned the term “left-side hitter” years ago, but the more modern term is “opposite,” because this player rotates opposite the setter in our 5-1 scheme. (I also use the obsolete term “dink”). “Opposite” is probably a better term because players as good as Samedy can, and do, hit from anywhere they want. (Or the coach wants.)Â
When she is in the front row (putting our setter in the back row, giving us 3 front-row hitters) Samedy typically hits right-side. When the setter is front row and Samedy back row, Samedy is still the third hitter, but now from behind the 10 ft line, and more middle than right. They feed her less often in the back row, typically in one of two scenarios: 1. The first pass was poor and whoever is handling the set isn’t confident that they can make a good set to the left-side hitter, so they put the ball super high in the center of the court, assuming that Samedy, wherever she is, will find it; or 2. The Gophers’ two front row hitters are both struggling and the coaching staff signals (between points) the setter to find Samedy.
But there is also one half-rotation, the serve receive when her “legal” position is front-left, where Samedy will hit from the left, at least on the first attack, because it’s difficult for her to get to the right side during the receive. (Maybe they switch if the volley continues. I’d know this if I was at the PAV watching the matches live. If any Reader has picked up on this, let us know.)