Bump, set, spike
Volleyball is fast-paced and exciting, but for those who don’t know what is going on, it’s just a confusing mess of words and terms no one would use in their everyday language.
So, here’s how to play volleyball, in an incomplete fairly simple and technical way.
Let’s start with the basics:
A match consists of five games. The team that wins three out of the five games wins the match.
Games are scored to 30 points.
A team must score at least two more points than the other team to win. So if the score is tied at 29, then one team must score at least 31 to win the match.
If, after four games, the teams have each won two games a piece, then the match goes to a fifth game – a deciding game.
This game is slightly different. Scoring only goes to 15, and halfway through, the teams switch sides.
One player on each team is designated as the libero.
The libero may not attack the ball from the front row and may be substituted from the back row an unlimited number of times.
This player wears a different colored jersey from the rest of her teammates so she can be easily identified by the referees.
A team can score a point in a number of ways.
Some examples are: if the opposing team hits the ball out of bounds or has a hitting error such as the same player hitting the ball twice in a row or a player lifting the ball; a blocking error – the player crosses the center line or touches the net – or an opponent cannot get the ball over the net in three or fewer hits.
• A team can also score points when a player serves or attacks – spikes – the ball and the other team cannot keep the ball in play.
• A team can also get a point by blocking the ball.
• When a team blocks a ball, the ball must land on the opposing side of the net inbounds.
• If a ball is blocked but goes out of bounds, the other team receives the point.
A player’s kill percentage is how often their attacks are not returned by the opposing team. So if their attacks are successful half of the time, they would have a .500 kill percentage.
There are many more technical rules to fully understand the game of volleyball.
For more information, check out the NCAA official rules by going to http://www.ncaa.org/library/rules/2005/2005_w_volleyball_rules.pdf.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu