The Flyers had another strong week when they played Rhode Island and Fordham on the road. They were definitely the favorite and I expected them to win if they played well.

I have decided to add a glossary of terms at the bottom of my articles to help fans pick up on terms that they might not understand although I realize that many of you are savvy volleyball fans.

On Friday the Flyers dispatched Rhode Island 3-0. UD dominated this match from start to finish by the scores of 25-14, 25-17 and 25-12. UD had a huge edge in sideout percentage in each set. Set 1: 86% to 50%, 70% to 47% and 77% to 45%.

Yvonne Marten was the huge offensive star in this match hitting .424 with 17 kills in 33 attempts. Shayne Brown hit .600 with nine kills in only 15 attempts. Shayne has really become a consistent player and watching her improve has been one of the highlights of this season. Megan Campbell also hit .600 with 6 kills in only ten attempts.

On Saturday the Flyers again won easily against Fordham. They outhit Fordam .384 to .044 and won by scores of 25-16, 25-13 and 25-13. UD had a huge advantage in sideout percentage: Set 1: 70% to 45%, 69% to 36% and 68% to 41%.

Before I mention what is happening this weekend I wanted to review some of the season statistics to show how well the team is playing.

Megan Campbell played right side last year so this is her first year at playing in the middle. Coach Sheffield mentioned prior to the season that Megan had worked incredibly hard in the off season and it has shown in her play. She is hitting .415 which is second highest on the team to Ally (with only three attempts). Everyone knew that Megan could hit the ball but she is also blocking at a high rate of 1.43 blocks per set.

Yvonne Marten was not 100% last year following multiple knee injuries. She is third on the team with 193 kills. She is an offensive force but the improvement in her defense is very very impressive. Yvonne had never played in the back row until this year but she has become a very good passer which is important to run a great offense.

Rachel Krabacher leads the team with 348 kills and 4.52 kills per set. Last year Rachel developed a cut shot which allows her to hit the ball from the left hand side toward the right side of the court. The only thing that was missing from Rachel’s game last year on offense was power. Her ball wasn’t really difficult to dig because she didn’t hit it with a lot of power. That changed after Rachel did a lot of weight lifting in the off season. Her spikes are now hit with a lot more pace making it much more difficult for the defensive players to dig.

Shayne Brown showed a lot of power for those fortunate to have seen her in practice. But Shayne has improved so much this year playing on the right side. She is a threat to hit the slide or a quick set. For the year Shayne is hitting .292 which is third among the primary hitters.

Hannan Isolde has also shown a lot of improvement since the year began. She does not receive a lot of attempts but is hitting .243 for the season and has even developed more power since the year began. Hannan is second on the team in blocks per set at .9

The offensive numbers are very good but as I have said over and over, YOU CANNOT RUN A GREAT OFFENSE WITHOUT GREAT PASSING. The difference between the defense and passing from early in the season to now is impressive.

Paige is not the same player as last season, she is much improved. She played in the shadow of Amanda C. for two seasons and was constantly pressured because she was less reliable than Amanda. Paige has become a very accurate passer and is in command of the defense.

Ally has improved her passing by a huge amount since last season. She is in the right place and has also become an accurate passer. Ally is also a major weapon when serving and shows a ton of emotion on the court.

Rachel Jones has not looked comfortable so far this season and Kelly said that they need for her to become more aggressive but she has great potential.

When you talk about defensive play you must mention Samantha Selsky. Setters often figure that getting to the first ball over the net is everyone else’s job, but not the setters. Sam plays tremendous defense and I would say she is the best defensive setter I have seen in my years of following UD volleyball. She has a great first step and covers a large area.

I also have to mention Yvonne and Kray defensively. Their improvement from the start of the season to this point has been amazing. The team has been meeting with Brittany Dildine (one of the best passers I have ever watched) to improve their passing accuracy and the difference is very obvious.

The last thing to mention about this team is the setting of Samantha Selsky. She has to be the favorite for A10 setter of the year. Besides being a very accurate setter and good blocker at the net Samantha can crush the ball. She is left handed which allows her to easily decide when to spike it at the last second. Those balls are very difficult to dig and Samantha is hitting .292 for the year.

This weekend the Flyers play Charlotte on Friday and George Washington on Saturday.

In their previous meeting the Flyers beat Charlotte in three sets 25-19, 25-16 and 25-19. The key to this match is controlling Sheri Davis the Charlotte setter. Coach Sheffield mentioned that she attacks a lot and puts pressure on the defense.

In their previous meeting the Flyers beat George Washington in three sets 25-17, 25-12 and 26-24. In this match the Flyers served 10 aces without a single service error. UD barely won the sideout battle in the third set 62% to 57%. Let’s hope that GW didn’t gain confidence in almost winning set three.
Let’s get two wins this weekend.

If you can think of any other terms you don’t know send me a message.

Glossary of Terms:

Sideout: When a team is serving and the team receiving serve wins the point
Sideout Percentage: This is a key stat that tells the story of a match. You calculate this by taking the number of points the receiving team wins on a serve divided by the number of serves. As an example if the other team serves 10 times and you win 6 of those points the sideout percentage would be 6/10 or 60%.

Slide: The setter is normally facing toward the left corner of the net. When the setter sets the ball behind them toward the right side of the net the hitter is running toward the pole. They jump off one leg and spike this set either down the line or cross court depending upon the block.

Lift: You will sometimes see the referee hold their palm up after blowing the whistle. This indicates that a player had prolonged contact with the ball and possibly changed the direction of the ball when doing it. This happens a lot when a player takes a ball off the net with one arm.

Bad Set: When the ball leaves the hands of a setter and is spinning sideways it is almost always a bad set. When the ball leaves a setter’s hands it is supposed to be contacted with both hands at the same time and leave both hands at the same time.