If you follow SFA Volleyball even a little then you know
the last week around here has seen some bold, new changes. The first thing that Debbie Humphreys said to
me after the 'Jacks swept UIW last Thursday evening was "How's that for a
gutsy move?" What she meant was her
decision to let freshman Ann Hollas start her first collegiate match by running
a 5-1 in an conference opener.
Two days later and the payoff was obvious. SFA swept all nine sets they played against
the Cardinals from San Antonio, UNT and Little Rock. Ann Hollas was awarded the MVP of the Holiday
Inn Express Tournament. Abby McIntyre
won Southland Conference Player of the Week. Danae
Daron re-wrote SFA record books by hitting .800 in a match. KK Payne cracked
the Top 10 in attack percentage for all Southland players - by hitting from the
left pin of all places. Pinch me and
tell me that the last sentence I wrote is actually true. SFA... yes S-F-A has an outsider hitter
hitting .228.
Then, of course, there is Lexus Cain doing her thing in
the libero jersey no matter what offense is being run. Charlie Hurley, our Volleyball Sports
Information Director, pulled out a gem of a stat for the Baylor game
notes: Cain has more digs than an ENTIRE
TEAM. North Carolina Central University has 258 digs. The University of Lexus Cain at Nacogdoches has
271 digs. Unreal. Cain is second in the nation in digs per set
with an otherworldly average of 5.77 digs per set.
All of the above is fairly well chronicled and has been
observed by many a Ladyjack Volleyball fan over the last three matches. However, this article isn't about Cain or
McIntyre or Hollas or Payne or even middle blocker extraordinaire Justice
Walker. All of those players have
overtly excelled in our return to the 5-1.
No, the love in this article goes to Haley Coleman and Corin Evans.
On the surface, Coleman and Evans don't appear to be
racking up numbers worthy of high praise.
I mean, Coleman is still hitting negative for the season and Evans only
has 44 attacks. But, hear me out: They provide what I think is a rather unusual
additional advantage to our one setter offense.
As you might have come to expect, I have the numbers to back up this claim.
See, essentially, Coleman and Evans are playing DS. Now, both are listed as outside hitters and
have plenty of experience there in high school and club ball. Don't forget Coleman played six-rotation outside
for us during part of 2015 and a little earlier this year. But right now, they are both essentially
defensive specialists despite what your roster card says. Evans is playing the back row slots in
Payne's spot and Coleman is in there when McIntyre's spot goes to the
back. Since Payne and McIntyre are separated in the rotations by a few clicks, one of Coleman and Evans has been
virtually always on the back row.
Check out the numbers that Coleman and Evans have
put up in the three matches since we've returned to the 5-1:
- Both had 9 digs vs. UNT which tied for 2nd best on the team that night.
- Coleman had 4 aces over the weekend
- Evans was 2nd on the team in digs vs. UIW
- Combined the two have hit .235 from the back row and collectively put up just shy of 5 digs per set (2.33 for Coleman and 2.44 for Evans over the three matches)
It's the last bullet that I want to focus on. That's the subtle part of our new back row
that spreads the offense in a small, but meaningful way. See, a DS can't do that. A defensive specialist isn't going to attack
at all, much less get you over a kill per set while hitting .235. They just aren't going to get set (on
purpose, that is). True defensive
specialists only attack when something went horribly wrong on offense. Even at that, they are virtually 100%
"just get the ball over" attacks.
When Coleman and/or Evans are on the back row the team has
an extra potential hitter that is really in the match for either serving, serve
receive and/or defense. That's a really
subtle use of those spots. So often,
when a hitter goes back row, she is subbed out for a "true DS". You know, the 5-5 gal that can dig everything
up and pass. Well, we have a few of
those on our team and they are good players.
We haven't seen the last of contributors like Sam Rodriguez. I mean, EVERY TEAM, has the little DS types
that just buzz around and dig/pass. If they weren't valuable, then why would so
many 5-2 girls be playing college volleyball?
Go to any NCAA roster you want and you'll find them.
But, for now... having Coleman and Evans be a sort of
hybrid hitter/DS type has paid subtle dividends on offense as well as defense.
Ok, I know what you are thinking: "Whoa, Greg, you are way ahead of
yourself. Coleman and Evans only put up
10 kills combined in three matches.
That's not a huge deal."
Well, I don't mind saying this:
If that's what you think, then you'd be wrong.
Those kills plus aces ARE a big deal and let me tell you
why: Since going back to the 5-1, SFA has averaged
13.89 kills per set. That number
extrapolated out to the entire season would be good enough for 45th in the
nation. Now, if you take away Coleman
and Evans offensive contributions from playing on the back row, we would have
12.78 kills per set over that same time.
So, there we see the difference is 1.11 kill per set. Not a big deal, right?
Wrong.
The 12.78 k/s figure over the whole season would be good
for only 137th in the nation. So, put
another way, with Coleman and Evans scoring a little from the back row, SFA hit
last weekend like a Top 50 club. Without
them, we regress to a middle-of-the-pack 137th. That one kill per set is the difference
between 45th ranked production and 137th ranked production. If a "true DS" was playing in both
those spots, we probably would have 0 kills from the back row. Combine that with the unlikely chance that
the true DS's could amass more than 5 digs per set and you come to the
conclusion that is subtly advantageous to use two outside hitters as surrogate
defensive specialists!!
The only reason that this works is because Coleman and
Evans are both capable of six-rotation duties.
It's just that we don't need them to do that right now thanks to Peyton
Redmond. Now, Redmond was hitting under
.100, which made me think that if the trend continued we might see Coleman or
Evans in her spot. But, Redmond passes
so well and has had a couple of good offensive performances of late to push her
up to .114. She needs to get things up
above .150, but still.. the trend is in the right direction and her passing is
so good that her role is safe for the near future.