As a baseball/ volleyball guy and analyst, I think you hit the nail on the head with pitching vs serving. Rotations also are a big point of contrast; teams are set up to receive differently with different personnel in different places, opening up new looks even if the same person/ area is served multiple times. Unlike the batter/ pitcher relationship where everyone is always stationed in the same place. Have you ever done work concerning targeting certain receivers repeatedly and aggressively in game? Throwing the same pitch/ same spot is usually a recipe for failure, but picking on poor receivers seems to yield results.
I have looked at reception load but the reasons for teams to focus on one passer can vary a lot. In P4 women’s volleyball, it’s hard to find a passer that is significantly worse than others that pass a lot of balls. Typically, teams will end up serving the front row outside hitter or they will try to put every ball on the more important of the two outsides. The latter strategy doesn’t tend to have the effect of wearing down the receiving player, neither in reception nor in attacking. With that said, I think if there is a passer who is significantly lower than her teammates, then I would probably serve her as much as I could.
As a baseball/ volleyball guy and analyst, I think you hit the nail on the head with pitching vs serving. Rotations also are a big point of contrast; teams are set up to receive differently with different personnel in different places, opening up new looks even if the same person/ area is served multiple times. Unlike the batter/ pitcher relationship where everyone is always stationed in the same place. Have you ever done work concerning targeting certain receivers repeatedly and aggressively in game? Throwing the same pitch/ same spot is usually a recipe for failure, but picking on poor receivers seems to yield results.
I have looked at reception load but the reasons for teams to focus on one passer can vary a lot. In P4 women’s volleyball, it’s hard to find a passer that is significantly worse than others that pass a lot of balls. Typically, teams will end up serving the front row outside hitter or they will try to put every ball on the more important of the two outsides. The latter strategy doesn’t tend to have the effect of wearing down the receiving player, neither in reception nor in attacking. With that said, I think if there is a passer who is significantly lower than her teammates, then I would probably serve her as much as I could.