Championship Classroom: Gulf Shores

Lessons from the deciding matches

As I mentioned earlier this week, I was recently down in Gulf Shores for NCAA Beach Nationals. There’s a lot to learn from any championship event and this was no exception, so I want to dive right in. The unique format of NCAA Beach Volleyball means that each school puts up 5 pairs against each other and whichever school wins 3-out-of-5 pairs wins the duel. The best duels get tied 2-2 and come down to a 5th court that is almost always in a 3rd set.

At this year’s championship, there were 5 matches that fit that bill:

Cal v Long Beach 4s
Stanford v Grand Canyon 4s
LSU v FAU 4s
USC v TCU 5s
USC v UCLA 3s

I’ll fill in the links as I post each write-up.

For each match I’ll share some stats and highlight plays and I’ll connect in some more general coaching concepts. I’ll do my best to keep these write-ups concise but you probably already know that brevity is not my strong suit. :)

Let’s start with Cal v Long Beach at the 4s pair. Cal won 21-14, 19-21, 15-8 to give Cal it’s first NCAA Tournament win in school history.

The Stats

(Note: this match was played in a gnarly rainstorm and the camera went down for a few points, so the stats are ever-so-slightly incomplete.)

Cal Triangle Stats
+9 Total Point Differential¹
+2 Terminal Serves
+7 First Ball
+/- 0 Transition

Alright, so we can see pretty clearly that First Ball was the difference between the two teams. Let’s look at First Ball a little closer:

First Ball Stats
19 Cal First Ball Kills
8 Cal First Ball Stops
19 Long Beach First Ball Kills
1 Long Beach First Ball Stop

As we peel back each layer, we gain a little more insight. Both teams killed the ball 19 times in serve receive, but Long Beach was stopped 8 times while Cal was only stopped once.

First Ball Stops
3 Cal Blocks
5 Long Beach Unforced Errors
1 Long Beach Block
0 Cal Unforced Errors

Cal did outblock Long Beach 3 to 1 in First Ball. In a close match, that’s meaningful. But the big difference was unforced errors. Long Beach gave up 5 in this match, which isn’t terrible terrible considering the weather conditions. But Cal made no unforced errors, which is really tough to deal with as a defending team.

Both teams gave up some aces, especially on the bad side, but Cal’s ability to Make Them Play was a clear differentiating factor in this match.

The Principle: Peel Back The Layers

Whether I’m coaching on the beach or indoors, this is how I like to use the Triangle method to drill down to the decisive factors in the match. You start with the most broad level of analysis, the Triangle, and then you peel back each layer, one at a time.

Much like ogres and parfait, volleyball matches have layers.

It doesn’t mean you don’t look at each piece of the game, but it does mean that you prioritize the factors that seemed to have the biggest impact. And if time is an issue, then you need to prioritize your analysis even more. NCAA indoor coaches tend to have a bigger staff and a bit more time to break down the weekend’s match(es) and draw conclusions. Club coaches and beach coaches have to process more matches with less staff, so prioritization is key.

The Plays

Here’s 3 fun plays from that match.

On The Net

With the pass off the net, nice job to roll this bumpset up to the net to punish a pulling blocker. I’m a big fan of players who can make this sort of step-close: step-closing to your right as a right-hander and then being able to rotate back the other way. Beach players are asked to do this more than indoor players, and indoor players can benefit from some step-close work in situations like this.

Into The Wind

Nice and simple: hit tough serves into the wind. Check the palm trees. Not easy conditions to pass. Something I like about this is how low the ball drops over the net. A lot of players get worried about missing into the net and end up lobbing the ball up a little bit when they serve into the wind.

Into The Wind Part 2

Something I see with youth players in this situation is they are too quick to pull in this out-of-system situation. With the wind taking the ball toward Cal, this blocker needs to stay up in case the set gets squirrely. She does and picks up an overpass kill for her troubles.

Alright, there’s the first deciding match of the tournament. Stay tuned for more over the next couple weeks. I’ll do my best to make them short hits like this.

1. As I said, it doesn’t exactly match the score because the camera lost the feed for a few points.