McMaster Volleyball adding layers

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Layering is something you do to add on to a pre-existing foundation. By its very nature, the term deals with building off of something. In volleyball it could be synonymous with improvement. Volleyball is a sport where everything is determined by the previous contact. How you handle the first contact affects the second contact, which in turn, affects the third contact.

Last weekend, McMaster Men’s Volleyball won two matches at home in straight sets. On Oct. 30 they beat Nipissing 25-8, 25-16, 25-20. Halloween evening saw them treat fans to 25-15, 25-22, and 25-17 set wins over York. These two victories pushed McMaster’s overall record to 4-0.

McMaster added layers to their on-court execution from their season-opening wins to get these recent victories. They improved on their passing percentages and their defensive speed (i.e. their responses to opponents’ attack attempts). Prior to these games, Head Coach Dave Preston wanted his team to work on balancing their scoring and their defensive speed. Those are the two layers he wanted to add.

His team did just that.

McMaster Men’s Volleyball coaching staff has “performance standards” where they rank each skill (such as passing or serving) on a zero to four scale, where a score of four is perfect by their performance standards.

“We passed a three out of a four on our performance standards scale. It was perfect,” said Preston. “Our passing has continued to stabilize itself and now we can start to build off of that. It’s all fundamental and progressive.”

The increase in passing speed is an improvement in their defensive speed and also helps their offense.

“If your setter is playing well, then your offense is going to run better, but you have to put the ball in your setter’s hands with some regularity. So our passing needs to be there first and then your setting and then you need to make efficient attacks out of that,” said Preston. “It’s all linked. Our first contact was really good this weekend so that set up our attacks well.”

Against Waterloo and RMC two weeks ago McMaster attacked at decent percentages, but improved significantly last weekend in terms of their attacks out of service receptions.

“We took our attack efficiencies from nine and 12 percent against Waterloo and RMC to 30 and 43 percent against Nipissing and York. Our offense was much more in sync and a lot of that is due to our setter Andrew Kocur,” said Preston. “A lot of people won’t recognize that. His setting speed and setting decisions were great. He was a better setter this week and as a result, we were a better team.”

On the defensive side of things, McMaster showed improvement as well, especially against York.

“We knew we had to control York’s middles and that requires speed. You have to be engaged right away. You can’t wait for that ball to go outside and get yourself into position late,” Preston said. “I thought our defensive engagement was really good and therefore, I thought our speed out of and into digs was pretty good.”

That’s the increase in defensive speed he desired.

In his eyes, his team improved in both offensively and defensively this past week. He hopes that this progressive layering of skills continues to translate to on-court execution and improvement.

“Our next layer is making sure our transition is proper. We make a dig then we make a good decision out of what we have available and we set the right ball,” said Preston. “Our initial defensive speed was good and now we’re going to increase our transition speed.”

McMaster will travel to Waterloo this Friday for a rematch at 8 p.m. against a good Waterloo team that took McMaster to five sets just two weeks ago. This time around is a bit different because Waterloo’s gym is known for its offset setup that affects depth perception on the court. Waterloo is one of the toughest gyms to play in.

“They know us really well. We know them really well. We’re in for a tough one and they’re coming off of a loss so they’re going to be angry and hungry,” Preston said. “They’ve probably had this match marked on their calendar for a couple months. We know what we’re walking into but we’re also going to be very prepared for it.”

If the Marauders can add another layer to their already improving on-court performance, a victory on the road at a tough venue shouldn’t be out of reach.

“It’s November. It’s still relatively early in our season. We’re four matches into a 20-match season,” said Preston. “We’ll be okay, but we’ve been getting better every week and that’s what we want.”

Photo Credit: Jon White/Photo Editor

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