It’s a big enough challenge to go from the world of high school and club volleyball. Freshman liberos like Arizona’s Brenna Ginder have also had to adapt to significant new rules that affect their position this season.
Starting this season, women’s NCAA volleyball changed its rules to reflect those that have been in place on the men’s side for years. Instead of designating one libero before each set, they can now designate two. Both liberos cannot be on the floor at the same time, but the dual position gives coaches more flexibility in how to use the defense-only players.
“I thought it was a cool rule,” Ginder said. “I’ve never played it. I’ve always played with one libero. Men’s volleyball plays it a lot. So I didn’t really have an initial thought, because I’ve never been in that situation. I think a lot of teams are using it because it allows you to have a lot of strengths and not use subs as much. So I think it can help a team, but I’m still new to it, too, so I think we’re all just trying to figure it out.”
One of the challenges of the system is staying in the flow of the game.
“It’s really hard to find a groove when you’re on and off the court,” Ginder said. “You can probably see us running back and forth. And so you just have to kind of find a way to know where you’re at in the game.”
Going into the season, Arizona assistant coach Ryan Windisch said that there were two primary ways he had seen it used in the men’s game. In his college days as a libero, one of the liberos focused only on serve receive while the other was just a defender. So, one of the two would be on the floor when the other team was serving and the other would take over when his own team was serving. His role was as a defender.
The other possibility Windisch mentioned was using a bigger player in the second libero jersey. This player would be focused on serving and would likely be the third setter on a roster. In his example, he spoke of using backup setter Ana Heath as a libero because of her powerful serve. However, in this scenario, a team needs to have three setters on the roster.
Arizona has not been able to use the libero position as a serve-only role because the Wildcats only have two setters this year. Heath has stepped into several games when freshman setter Avery Scoggins was having difficulty. This has caused them to opt to go with the defensive libero and offensive libero system. Ginder serves the role of the offensive libero.
It has worked out well for the freshman and her team. Senior Haven Wray has always been a strong defender and has been working on her passing. She said last season that it was not her strong suit. It is Ginder’s strong suit.
“It allows them to be in their strengths, which then gets the most out of them,” Arizona head coach Rita Stubbs said. “Brenna comes in as a good passer, learning the pace of the game in terms of being a defender. Haven, who has struggled in the past passing but was a good defender. But she’s passed some great numbers the last two weeks.”
The freshman libero was the ninth-best libero/defensive specialist in the country last week when Arizona faced No. 13 Arizona State. She passed a 2.38 on the 0-3 scale used to rate the quality of passes. Generally speaking, the system gives a 0 to an ace or an overpass, a 1 allows the setter to set one of her options or forces someone other than the setter to set the ball, a 2 gives the setter two options, and a 3 pass is perfect and allows for all setting options.
Going into the ASU match, Ginder was passing a 2.19 in Big 12 matches and 2.25 overall this season. Both are the highest on the team. Wray was not far behind at 2.14 in 35 attempts. All 35 of Wray’s attempts have come in conference games.
Ginder is getting the second-most attempts on the team. She had attempted 287 passes overall prior to the match against ASU. In Big 12 play, she had 82. Only freshman outside hitter Carlie Cisneros had more with 335 overall attempts and 129 against Big 12 opponents.
As a team, Arizona was passing 2.11 this season prior to the match in Tempe. That dropped to 1.96 against their four previous Big 12 opponents. The Wildcats would like it to be better, but it’s already a step in the right direction.
“This year is better than it was last year,” Stubbs said. “So, I mean, I’ll take that and run and smile and be happy, but it’s something that we will always work on because if we can pass, I believe we can play with anyone.”
Ginder is taking it upon herself to improve, and stats are one of the tools she’s using to do so.
“I think there’s good and bad to stats,” she said. “I think we’re always aiming for a 2.5 when we pass, and so we stat a lot at practice. And I’ve learned to actually look at my stats and figure out how I can get the numbers up. We look a lot at stats and what we’re passing and where we’re passing. And so I think it’s just you take a number and you try to beat it every time and it’s fun to kind of have a competition against yourself.”
Stubbs isn’t as caught up in every pass being perfect. While it’s nice, she believes the type of athletes in today’s game makes it less important.
“Now we’re in a better position where 2 passes are good passes,” Stubbs said. “Back when I played, it was a 3 or bust, and now the kids are so much more physical you can pass a 2 ball and still be in a position to score.”
Winning the serve and pass game isn’t just about passing, though. As the term implies, coming out on top of the serve game is also big. That’s where Arizona has struggled the most.
“We talked about that during preseason,” Stubbs said. “But once again, I don’t want to beat them up for it, because the key is, if we’re going to play against a good team, we’re going to have to serve the ball to keep pressure on them.”
The Wildcats will face two teams this week who present different problems on serve receive. Houston is more like the Wildcats, averaging 1.69 aces per set compared to Arizona’s 1.70. That’s 76th and 77th in the country and 2nd and 3rd in the Big 12. CU lags behind with 1.54 per set, good for 147th in Division I.
The problem for the Wildcats has been service errors. While CU is not as strong when it comes to aces, it does get far more balls in with 1.76 service errors per match. That’s good for 53rd in the country. Houston is having more difficulty with 2.36 SE per set. The ace-to-error ratio may not be great for the Cougars, but they are having more success balancing aggressiveness and efficiency than the Wildcats. UA has 2.86 service errors per set, placing it 324th of 346 DI teams.
“We want to be aggressive,” Ginder said. “We want aces, but right now, we just need to focus on getting it to our targets and making the other team pass the ball.”
Whatever the challenges, Stubbs wants to see the team compete from beginning to end in both matches, noting that Colorado has played eight five-set matches this season. The word “compete” is one that both coaches and players have used a lot this season after the team sometimes seemed to lack fight in 2023.
“Yes, I want to win the next two matches, but it’s one match at a time and one day at a time,” Stubbs said.
Lead photo by Reagan Helfer / Arizona Athletics
