FORT COLLINS — As good as Colorado State’s back row has played this year, not every ball can be perfect.
A tough serve, a strong attack and the pass may not be exactly where the Rams’ offense wants it to return the favor. Dive to keep a ball off the floor and all bets are off.
It’s called playing out of system, and the Rams — undefeated at 25-0 (16-0 in the Mountain West) and ranked 10th nationally — actually do it pretty well. Coach Tom Hilbert had his hunches, but he checked the charts anyway.
He was right. In what they chart as first-ball bad passes, the Rams are hitting .180 in conference play, and all Hilbert asks for is .150. It’s also a far cry from what the opposition is hitting — negative-.005. In transition, the Rams hit .260; their foes just .120.
“Those numbers are very good when you look at where we’re at as compared to our opponents,” Hilbert said. “I’d say we are a good out-of-system team.”
It is somewhat of an art form on the court. The already-crowned Mountain West champions will take it with them on their final road trip of the regular season, a California swing against San Jose State (8-19, 5-11) on Thursday, followed by Saturday’s noon start at Fresno State (17-11, 11-5).
It’s a two-person tango, with the setter and hitter playing an equal role in the process. The importance of it has changed with the rules, with being adept at it more important with rally scoring.
Back in the day, if you were the team serving and thus the only one that could score, a hitter could tee off and hope for the best. Now, making sure you don’t hit a ball wide or long is just as important as going for the kill.
“Well, the first thing is the setter has to be able to turn something bad into something good. We call it locating it properly,” Hilbert said. “It has to be even more accurate in those situations. Tempo is not as much of a deal, because they know who’s getting the ball, so it has to be put in a situation where the hitter has options.
“Then, if you have that and you have a hitter who can take a big swing with some options, then you might be able to get a kill. Really, a lot of times, the biggest thing we’re trying to do in those situations is not hurt ourselves. We call it live to fight another day. You don’t take some humongous, errant swing thinking this is either going to be a kill or an error. You don’t do that.”
The Rams’ hitters say setter Deedra Foss is just as good in those situations as when things are going well.
She feels confident she can get to most out-of-system balls. It may mean she may have to move a bit and use her upper-body strength to push a ball to the pins. Or she may just have to run something down and bump it to her hitters the best she can.
Neither is an ideal situation, but the desired result is the same as with a good pass. Either way, the key in her mind is court awareness.
“It’s all of it,” she said. “You definitely have to know where you are. There are times when I do it and it will be too tight or too far off, and that’s me not knowing where I was or where to locate it.”
But according to Marlee Reynolds, more often than not, she gives them a ball they can make work.
“She’s super-accurate about it. I don’t know how she does it, just running and throwing the ball to us,” Reynolds said. “But she’s very accurate. All of us … I’m better when my out-of-system balls are inside and tighter, and I know she’s conscious of how each person kind of prefers their out-of-system ball. When she can, she tries to do that for us.”
As for the hitter’s part, it’s all about patience. Reynolds said it was what she had to fight early, and she still does at times. For freshman Michelle Lawrence, it is a trick she’s still trying to master.
“My timing. That has to do with everything; patience,” she said. “My out-of-system play wasn’t great coming in, so that was one of the hardest habits I had to break. I think I’ve gotten a lot better, but it’s nice we don’t have to play out of system that much. We have a pretty awesome back row.”
Hilbert said Lawrence’s biggest issue is she wants everything fast, and out-of-system sets aren’t. They are usually high, arcing passes to the left, so when Hilbert checked his charts again, he was stunned.
The black-and-white numbers said Lawrence was hitting .310 on those first-swing bad passes, better than when she swings in system.
“That’s unbelievable. That can’t be right,” he said. Then again, he also said there are times he starts to cringe as she rises, only to wind up saying, “great shot.”
That’s what you get with out-of-system balls — the unexpected. It’s where Foss said she has to be creative, and the hitters definitely do.
Up until the final point, there’s no guarantee what they’ll be faced with, creating variables to equate every step of the way, always knowing safety comes first.
“Sometimes it’s hard because the ball is high and you’re trying to see the ball, trying to see the block and just kind of staying patient and seeing the court the way you need to, that can be difficult at times,” Reynolds said. “You do have to be smarter with them. You have to know how to be crafty with it, see the block and the court and be smart with hitting it.”
Mike Brohard can be reached at 635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and @mbrohard
