Published: Aug. 8, 2014
Rally scoring advances into next decade
Rule change ‘reinvented’ sport
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
There was apprehension regarding the change. There was also
curiosity.
Ten years later, most wonder how volleyball ever lived
without it.
This year will be the beginning of the second decade of rally
scoring in Wisconsin high school volleyball.
Rally scoring was implemented in Wisconsin in 2004. Rally
scoring is when points are scored following every rally rather than only being
able to score when your team serves.
“I would not have foreseen it as being a huge impact as it
has (been),” Slinger volleyball coach Michelle Lastovich said. “The game
reinvented itself.”
West Bend West’s former coach and area club coach Alex Uhan
said, “I actually think it was better for the game.”
The apprehension was it got away from tradition. Everybody
knew you needed to score 15 points to win a volleyball set. But they also knew
you had to be on serve to score a point.
However, the curiosity was there as to how it was going to
change the sport — positive or negative.
“I kind of felt it was going to be a little difficult
knowing the score was going to go longer and there was more strategy involved,”
Uhan said. “You were so focused on offense, offense and offense because that
was the only way you’re going to score. I think defense lacked a little bit.
“Defense is now more important. Their positions are more
valuable. I was a little curious how everything was going to pan out because it
was so offensive-based.”
The change was made for many reasons. Pace of play or flow
of the game was one the biggest reasons.
Volleyball also has substitution rules. At the club level, a
team is allowed 12 subs per set, while it is 18 at the high school level. With
a long match, teams ran out of subs.
With rally scoring, that is rarely a worry.
The hope was to also reduce the amount of time games took.
Another major reason for the change was to involve more
players on one side of the court.
And because of that, players were forced to be better
all-around. Every player on the court mattered, not just one or two of the big
hitters on the outside who got all the glory for scoring the points. “That’s
why the numbers are so big,” Uhan said. Every point also mattered, which made
players mentally tougher, too.
“I think they didn’t know how intense the change was going
to be,” Uhan said. “The game has taken off to a whole another level.”
At about the same time, the defensive specialist or libero
position was introduced. The position is just as it sounds. That player’s main
responsibility is to get a dig off an attack to set up a play, putting an
emphasis on defense.
Another position which saw a boost in importance after rally
scoring was implemented was middle hitter/blocker.
A block of an offensive attack was now worth a point whereas
before it was just a side-out and no point was awarded.
“It makes the effort count,” Uhan said.
“I think you’re getting stronger players in blocking,” he
added. “When you can put up a good block, with a solid offense, you’re winning
two battles.”
“Every person on the court is now valuable,” Lastovich said.
“You have kids that are more agile than they were 10-15 years ago.
“I think rally scoring has been a good change for
volleyball; it will help the sport evolve.”
Serving and its importance also changed.
A serve into the net wasn’t punishable with a point for the
other team. It was just the serve. Now a serve into the net costs a team a
point.
Under the old system, it wasn’t rare to see a player just
step up to the service line and let it rip.
There is and has to be more strategy.
“You’ve got to be smart about it,” Uhan said.
Uhan said the change was made before his freshman year at
Homestead High School. It took him about half a season to get used to the
change and fall in love with it.
Lastovich, a traditionalist because she played her
volleyball career under the old format, took a little bit longer to warm up to
it.
She saw it was the perfect change after seeing the overall
development of her players at Slinger.
“It has made the game better,” she said.
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