All the recent posts about our new middles made me think back to the era of Layne Van Buskirk....2016-2019. Layne was a 2 time All American Honorable Mention and one of the most dominating middles we have had on the attack. I remember her running the slide attack to near perfection. In my mind she really stood out in that regard. Since her departure...I can't recall seeing our middles running the slide very much. It's such a dominating and intimidating play on the attack. I'd love to see more of the slide attack by Pitt. Any thoughts on this? Would like to hear your thoughts....thanks. Check out this highlight video of Layne from 2019. She's number 7.
The Slide Attack In Volleyball
- Thread starter vantheman1976
- Start date
Slide is a really difficult play to run despite looking pretty simple. Takes timing and communication. You can see in the video how many times she had to reach outside to get a play on the ball. A lot of times, Middles just aren't that athletic. I also think that if you have a good Opposite, you don't need to run that play as often. Ideally, you might run it more if you're in serve receive with a DS in the back and no real RS on the floor.
Agreed, teams rarely run the slide when the setter is in the back row and a RS in the front and with Pitt running the 6-2 with Fairbanks changing from S to RS when she moves to the front there isn't much of a reason to run that slide. I believe back when LVB played it was older Akeo setting all the way around most of her career
Good explanation.....thank you. I can see how Fairbanks has changed the logic on the need for the slide....and yes you are right about Akeo back in the day. Nevertheless I really miss that attack in our arsenal. I remember seeing LVB do it for the first time and leaning over to my wife saying 'WTF was that'!
Pitt still runs it. Depends on the alignment and timing. Pitt's middles have very good hitting percentages but when you have good RS hitters, you take the higher percentage play.
It's about opponent blocking scheme too - the slide is especially effective when there isn't a RS hitter on the court because the opponents are generally focusing their block on left side at the OH at that point. When you have 3 hitters in the front row, the opponent already has to respect the right side hitter so you're fooling the block less as well
It's just the Spanish Pick n' Roll on a volleyball court!
Ask Rocky, he'll tell you!
There were some rotations this year when Fisher would play Fairbanks as front row setter when Buzzerio was serving. They would run a slide play in that configuration a fair amount of the time.
LVB ran the slide a lot in the season that freshman Lexis Akeo ran a 5-1.
IMO Pitt needs to find someone with a truly great back row attack. That's what separated pitt from Louisville last year (and coincidentally kept pitt out of the finals last year). It takes a special athlete to consistently score points from the back row. Pitt has had some great, great outsides but none of them had a deadly back row attack. That would solve a lot of problems
It's a low percentage play. Some of that is because you see it happen more when you're out of system but I think your kill percentage goes down because the defense gets a better look at the ball coming over. I think most teams prefer to avoid it if the outsides and middles are hitting well. Maybe your throw a "bic" or quick back row set and hit just to catch the blockers anticipating your tempo occasionally but it leaves you out of position defensively, too.
I can't see Pitt ever doing that routinely as long as Fisher can run a 6-2. We have three all-conference offensive players in the front row pretty much every rotation of the season.
Having said that, Fish did like the back row attack from Buzzerio on her service rotations. That's probably all you will see IMO.
I was thinking you might see it more in a 5-1 since you're down a hitter when the setter is in the front row. Just another option.
Isn't this like saying Pitt football just needs to find another player with a Marino-like arm to be its QB? There just aren't many people out there with that skillset.
