CUVC | UCC | Player's guide | Service receive page 1

A setter to serve

The setter can serve from anywhere along the base-line, and as soon as they have made contact, all of the players switch to their base positions. It's usually best if the front court setter runs behind the other players at the net, as since (s)he has further to run they're more likely to run into the net. (I've seen it happen.) The image above shows where everyone starts and where they then run to.

A setter just lost their serve


Once the setter's run of service has been broken, the team must face a service receive. The convention is to always have a similar shape of receivers, with two main receivers taking the majority of the balls and two players covering the lines. This usualy leaves one player at the net and one setter to run to position '2'. In this case, the players are arranged as shown above. The setter who was just serving will run around the middle hitter and take the second ball. You may often hear the setter shout 'comming round' just to let everyone know roughly what to expect. This rotation requires a lot of communication and dominance by the two main receivers ((M2) & (H2)) as they will take the majority of the first balls. It is up to (S2) and (H1) to decide which of them hits through '4' on the first attack and which through '3'. The middle player (M1) will attack through '2'. Once the first attack has been made, each player goes to their base positions, remembering that now (S2) is the front court setter, so goes to '2', while (S1) drops back to '1'.
Click here for the next set of service receive positions.