[UltimateCard]

I'll never understand, though, how a team can go so flat so quickly from one set to the next.

The announcers said something about that and it registered with neophyte volleyball watcher me.

In basketball or baseball or football if you have a lousy quarter/inning, the score stays with you and carries forward.  Only in Volleyball does the margin of your victory for that unit get "flushed." 

This difference gives Volleyball a completely different psychology than all of those other sports--you don't have to live with your past mistakes during a game nearly as much as in all those other sports.

This explains the wild fluctuations.  Once one side gets too far ahead in a set, the motivation to fight hard on the other side wanes.  Losing by a lesser deficit doesn't do you any good.  But once you have lost the set it matters not one bit how badly you just played since you are starting from scratch again.  Demoralization doesn't carry forward in the same sense as it does with all those other sports.

I'm not sure whether this psychological difference is a good thing or a bad thing.  It certainly makes 5 set games exciting.  But it is also a little like the electoral college.  You can win three sets by the narrowest of margins and lose 2 sets by massive  deficits and win the match.

For example, Gonzaga outscored us in WBB in 3/4 quarters.  Under volleyball type rules that game would never have gone to overtime.

Someone who actually knows volleyball rules and strategy should correct me but I believe that coaches can adjust the starting point of service rotations from game to game, to try to gain an advantage offensively and/or defensively. The coaches don’t know what moves the other will make so the matchups can change quite a bit and momentum can shift dramatically as a result.

[UltimateCard]

I'll never understand, though, how a team can go so flat so quickly from one set to the next.

The announcers said something about that and it registered with neophyte volleyball watcher me.

In basketball or baseball or football if you have a lousy quarter/inning, the score stays with you and carries forward.  Only in Volleyball does the margin of your victory for that unit get "flushed." 

This difference gives Volleyball a completely different psychology than all of those other sports--you don't have to live with your past mistakes during a game nearly as much as in all those other sports.

This explains the wild fluctuations.  Once one side gets too far ahead in a set, the motivation to fight hard on the other side wanes.  Losing by a lesser deficit doesn't do you any good.  But once you have lost the set it matters not one bit how badly you just played since you are starting from scratch again.  Demoralization doesn't carry forward in the same sense as it does with all those other sports.

I'm not sure whether this psychological difference is a good thing or a bad thing.  It certainly makes 5 set games exciting.  But it is also a little like the electoral college.  You can win three sets by the narrowest of margins and lose 2 sets by massive  deficits and win the match.

For example, Gonzaga outscored us in WBB in 3/4 quarters.  Under volleyball type rules that game would never have gone to overtime.

Someone who actually knows volleyball rules and strategy should correct me but I believe that coaches can adjust the starting point of service rotations from game to game, to try to gain an advantage offensively and/or defensively. The coaches don’t know what moves the other will make so the matchups can change quite a bit and momentum can shift dramatically as a result.