Volleyball team improves with new swing offense

Sophomore outside hitter Hillary Toivonen tried to explain the volleyball team's new "swing" offense, but she kept laughing and shaking her head. \n"It's so confusing," she said.\nIt might be hard to put into words, but the Hoosiers have broken a school record with the new offense, and three players now lead the Big Ten in offensive categories. \nThe team first played with the swing offense during the spring season. The idea of the new offense is based around the hitters who are no longer designated to a certain area, but can hit from any area on the court, confusing the opponent.\nThe goal of swing offense is to have the hitters move around the court. The opponent's defense then cannot call who to block because the opponent's hitter in her designated zone could move to the other side of the court.\nIt wasn't an easy offense for the Hoosiers to get used to. The team had to adjust its footwork, its speed, its approach -- everything they had been used to.\n"It was frustrating," senior outside hitter Amanda Welter said. "It took us the entire spring to do it, because we already had a set offense. That was the toughest part -- getting your mind trained to be in a swing offense, rather than what we were running before."\nFor the seven new players on the team, it was easier to adjust. Because the seniors had already been running the offense by the time the rookies began practicing with the team, they used the upperclassmen as examples.\n"Our team is pretty young, so it's a great time (to change the offense)," coach Katie Weismiller said. "They are going to have it, they're going to be able to work with it. You're going to grow through growing pains anyway when you put younger players on the court, so I will try to assist them as we go."\nSo far, the change has had positive effects on the team. Last weekend, the Hoosiers broke a school record against Marquette with a .523 single-match hitting percentage. Sophomore setter Laurie Gardner leads the Big Ten conference in assists with 13.91 per game. Toivonen is third in the league with 4.44 kills per game, and Welter falls into the sixth spot with 4.18 kills per game. Welter is also ranked 10th for earning a .357 hitting percentage.\nAs a team with the new swing offense, the Hoosiers have been able to lead its opponents in every category but errors per game. IU has almost 600 total kills while it has held its opponents to 520 kills. The Hoosiers also have a .228 total hitting percentage to a mere .171 from their opponents.\nBut they haven't perfected the swing offense yet.\n"Communication is key, and we've struggled," Weismiller said. "Against Loyola-Marymount we had two communication errors, spots where no one was there, but that's going to happen. But by midseason Big Ten, we shouldn't have any more of those problems"