National Tournament

In collegiate volleyball the equivalent to playoffs is the NCAA National Tournament. But instead of having district play, collegiate volleyball has conferences. High school volleyball also has five different divisions in Texas, 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A and 5A. But in college there is only Division I, II, and III schools. Every division has its own national tournament.
Rice's conference is called Conference USA. It is made up of 12 Division I colleges, and in volleyball, only one goes to the NCAA tournament: the winner of the regular season. It is very competitive, as you would imagine.
To see more about Conference USA click here

Conference will be over for pretty much all Division I volleyball teams by Thanksgiving. Around this time, the NCAA will create the brackets for the tournaments also divided into four regions. This year the "final four" in the tournament will be played in San Antonio, Texas.
click here to learn more about NCAA volleyball

Playoffs

Probably one of the most exciting times in a high school volleyball is competing in playoffs to the state tournament. I haven't played anywhere else, so I'll try to shed some light on the Texas high school volleyball playoffs and my experiences through them.
I made varsity as a freshman so I have been to playoffs four times, and every time was an adventure.
The journey starts in your high school's district, or "regular season" play. Your team needs to place 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th to be eligible to compete in the playoffs. Texas is divided into four regions, every district being assigned to one of the four. This makes a big difference on how difficult your road to state is going to be. There are 5 rounds, or 5 matches that your team has to win to make the state tournament, that the winner of each region attends.
My senior year, as captain, I unfortunately broke my pinky in the last practice before district was over, which made me ineligible to play. And my team was picked to win state. You can only imagine my team and school's devastation. But my team pulled together like they never had before and they promised they would take me to San Marcos (the location of the state tournament). And they did just that. Through trials and tribulations, my team conquered unfeasible goals and made it to state.
This was the greatest moment of my volleyball career and I didn't even touch a volleyball.

Secrets of the Game

People looking at volleyball from the outside world don't always know what all the game encompasses and often think of it as a recreational sport. But the extreme opposite is true. Volleyball is an extremely difficult sport that requires dedication, hard work and skill. If you want to be competitive in the sport, here are some things you might want to keep in mind...

1. If you hate spandex, STAY AWAY
    Unless you play Junior High ball, you will have to wear spandex so get used to it.
2. You will have permanently scarred knees
    The repeated diving and throwing your body on the ground will cause you to have permanent bruises.
3. Must be competitive but you can't yell at your teammates because girls are sensitive :/
    You have to be as aggressive as any other sport but you rely on five girls for everything so if you upset them, you're done for.
4. Have to be half- cheerleader
    The game is based off pure emotion so you have to cheer for any little thing to gain momentum.
5. NO SYMPATHY
    It doesn't matter if you hit someone in the face on the opposing team to where their nose bleeds. IT'S A GOOD THING!

follow @StudntAthlProbz and @vballproblems on Twitter!

NCAA Update

This week history has been made.
For only the third time ever, Oklahoma University volleyball beat the #8 University of Texas.
Both schools, being in the Big 12 Conference, are each other's main rival. They have to play each other twice a year and in their first encounter last Wednesday, September 28, Oklahoma took Texas to a long five set match only to come out on top.
In NCAA volleyball, all matches are played best 3 out of 5 sets. A set is complete win the first team gets 25 points and they have to win by two points.
Oklahoma won the first two sets 25-16 and 25-20, then dropped the second two 17-25 and 24-26. They finally prevailed to defeat Texas by smashing them in the fifth set 15-9. Both teams are very young starting many of their freshman and relying on them to win games.
This was a huge accomplishment for OU and one of the many upsets that has happened this season. There is most likely many more to come and who knows who will end up with the national championship.


CLICK HERE TO SEE FOOTAGE FROM THE GAME