Generally, setting to two players 70 percent of the time wouldn't necessarily be the best idea. That type of imbalance, especially against a team like No. 12 Ohio State in a season-opening Big Ten match, could have grave consequences.
But last night, that formula seemed to make sense.
Outside hitter freshman Megan Hodge and sophomore Nicole Fawcett tallied 36 of the No. 2 Penn State women's volleyball team's 49 kills. Freshman setter Alisha Glass, while directing the offense, deemed it best to work from the outside-in, rather than the inside-out.
"Early on, they were leaving our outsides one-on-one and then towards the middle of the second game they were committing," Glass said. "We wanted to make a concerted effort going into the third game that we would keep them honest and throw some middles at them so that they couldn't just have two blocks on the outside."
Through the first two games, Hodge and Fawcett combined for 26 kills and were striking at rates of .355 and 227 rate, respectively.
Hodge exploited all sorts of gaps, cruising most of the night. She was seemingly able to place balls wherever she spotted an opening.
And Fawcett used her trademark power to mercilessly pound the Buckeye (10-1, 0-1 Big Ten) defenders.
"They were fronting the middles and were forcing the ball outside," Penn State head coach Russ Rose said. "When we put the ball outside there were some mismatches that take place. Those two kids [Hodge and Fawcett] get up in the air and hit the ball pretty well. I thought that was to our advantage."
Their job, though, was made a bit easier thanks to Ohio State's big-middle game plan.
The shift from a middle-heavy block to a more-conscious effort on the outside block afforded the Nittany Lions (12-0, 1-0) the ability to work in middle hitters sophomore Christa Harmotto and junior Melissa Walbridge.
Harmotto finished with 8 kills on .615 hitting and added nine blocks.
Walbridge had two kills.
"I also recognize that if 70 percent of your swings are going to two players that over the course of the season, those kids are going to get tired," Rose said. "And the opposing teams are going to have the ability to establish a little better defensive game plan or they're just going to stack their blocks. You need to be able to control the ball to open up you're outside hitters."
Rose would like this young team to develop a little more balance as the season moves forward. But after picking up a win against an Ohio State team that is stocked with some nice talent, Rose can't complain a whole lot with last night's offensive skewed distribution.
"There's going to be some matches when you can get away with not having good balance," Rose said, "but certainly you don't have a good balance in the majority of your matches, you're going to find yourself in trouble."
