National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s volleyball changed the rules so you can double the ball on the second contact on 28 Feb., 2024.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel is now allowing women volleyball players to contact the ball twice (double) on the second contact.
This rule is only applicable to players setting up another teammate; if they are sending the ball over the net on the second or third ball, the player can not double. If they fail to do so and happen to double while sending it over, it results in a fault and the other team would gain a point.
The NCAA Women’s Volleyball Rules Committee have been debating this new rule all through the month of Jan.
Before the new rule, the referee would make a judgment call about if they thought the set was a double or not. The Committee wanted to eliminate this to make the game rules more consistent.
Players, coaches and especially potential college players, have been back and forth about this new rule.
Those that are setters, the ones who typically set the second ball, now feel as though there is nothing that sets them apart anymore.
“I worry that with that rule change that [high fundamental levels of setting is] going to kind of go out the window,” West Virginia University’s Volleyball Head Coach Jen Greeny said in an interview with the university’s newspaper.
If there is no incentive, will youth coaches stop putting so much pressure on setters not to double? This may affect the hitters as well because the better the set, the better potential for a kill.
This new rule can cause less talent at the collegiate level in the long run starting with the skills of the youth.
