Wife Maureen (who, oddly enough, is a reader) asks, “Why do they take Samedy out, when she’s their best player, even getting kills from the back row?”
John: It’s about “rotation position.” Samedy plays what we used to call “right-side hitter,” but now many people call this position “opposite,” because she rotates opposite the setter, i.e, she and the setter are never in the front row at the same time. When the Gophers were struggling and Coach McCutcheon wanted to shake things up, the most meaningful “shake-up” would be to sub the veteran back-up setter McMenimen in for the freshman Shaffmaster. But he can’t sub McMenimen into the front row because she is vertically impaired, so he subs McMenimen into the back row for Samedy. And simultaneously subs Miyabe into the front row for Shaffmaster – the “double sub.”
Reader W.P. asks, “Michigan State got called for ‘back-row attack’ at least 3 times on Sunday; how come Samedy is allowed to attack from the back row?”
John: A “10 ft line” (“3 meter line” in the Olympics) delineates the front row from the back row. A back-row player can not attack or block a ball while standing in, or jumping from, the front row. Samedy is allowed to hit, and is effective at hitting, from the back row by taking a running start and leaving the floor behind the 10 ft line. She is, in a sense, well in front of the 10 ft line when she strikes the ball – but she hasn’t touched the floor yet. Samedy’s skill at this allows the Gophers to have 3 hitters in every rotation; the front-row middle, the front-row left-side, and Samedy, regardless of where she might be in the rotation. I think that one of the calls against Michigan State involved a back-row player trying to do what Samedy does so effortlessly.
A back-row setter, on the other hand, is allowed to set from the front row (in fact, this is a standard feature of modern offenses) – but she is not allowed to block. I think the other two calls you refer to were against their setter trying to set balls that were passed so tight to the net that they actually broke the plane of the net – allowing Gophers to attack them; and the setter’s hand got in the Gopher’s way – constituting a block. You can’t do that.
(On the topic of the “10 ft line,” libero McGraw is allowed to make overhand sets from behind the line, but in front of it she is only allowed to “bump-set.” If you watch close, you’ll notice McGraw overhand setting from a couple feet in front of the line – but like Samedy, hanging in the air.)