Volleyball’s changing terminology

It used to be that a set in volleyball was just an over-head pass to a hitter. But starting this fall, NCAA volleyball is using the term “set” to replace game, which previously meant matches went best-of-five games. High school volleyball matches are best-of-three games, ahem, sets.

Close viewers of former Long Beach star Misty May and playing partner Kerri Walsh during their Olympic gold-medal run would have noticed that both beach and indoor volleyball broadcasters were using the term sets during the Olympics. It’s just the same term that has been used for years by international volleyball, which means that people outside of this country believe it’s easier to use tennis terms to describe volleyball scoring.

Got all that? Anyways, like so many other recent changes in volleyball, like rally scoring, let serves and the libero, this should all take a while to sink in for the general sporting fan.