Women’s volleyball hones in on simplified offensive effort

Claire Felix has always been a one-foot middle blocker.

The senior said that the slide – an off-balance hit in which the middle jumps off one foot and hits the ball by the right pin – has been a big part of her offense throughout her UCLA career.

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Felix’s slide has been one of UCLA’s most powerful offensive weapons for the last two years. But the constant presence of a right-side hitter in the new 6-2 rotation means that there is simply not enough room on the net for Felix to run the slide anymore, forcing her to adjust to hitting a “one” – a faster set hit off two feet from the middle of the court.

“Staying in the middle of the court and going off two is not her strong suit,” said coach Michael Sealy. “Once we changed the system, it impacted her more than anybody.”

In theory, Sealy could still run a slide with the 6-2 if he wanted to add some complexity to the Bruins’ offense, but he has his reasons not to.

“The slide only works in a two-hitter rotation, unless you want to do crossing patterns,” Sealy said. “If you’re going to utilize Claire on a crossing pattern and the pass isn’t perfect, now you have two hitters you can’t set.”

Not being able to set the opposite would hurt the team as well. Freshman opposite Torrey Van Winden was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week, her second weekly honor in as many weeks. Sealy said that he doesn’t plan on running any of those crossing patterns, so Felix is limited to running the more classic “one.”

Felix’s characteristic dominance at the middle hasn’t been as present in UCLA’s offense in recent games. She hit .077 against Stanford on Friday compared to .357 for the season.

In the Bruins’ most recent game against California on Sunday, however, Felix notched nine kills and hit .500, her best percentage since the start of Pac-12 play.

“She’s adjusted to her new role and the new offense that we’ve been running phenomenally,” said redshirt junior setter Ryann Chandler. “Her strength is the slide, but I think that she’s adjusted, and I think she’s doing a great job in the middle.”

Felix sticking to a simple “one” is characteristic of the Bruins’ offense as a whole, as Chandler and freshman setter Kylie Miller have been running a very straightforward offense.

“I think that us having a really clean and simple offense has allowed us to be able to spread our offense more evenly, and when our passing isn’t great we still have our options,” Chandler said. “So it’s nice setting-wise to know where you’re going to be going every time and then you can just make your decision based on the pass.”

[Related: UCLA women’s volleyball beats Cal with balanced offense, defense]

Simple has been successful for the Bruins, who have won four consecutive conference games, including two against NCAA-ranked opponents.

Chandler said that while a complex offense can work, a bad pass can eliminate multiple options. The Bruins’ more basic offense consists of outside hitters and opposites hitting their typical sets – “fours” and “fives” – at the pins along with the middle blockers hitting “ones.” This allows for the setters to still have options even when the pass isn’t perfect.

“You know what we’re going to do. We’re running the same play every single time. But even though you know it’s hard to stop because spatially we spread the net out 30 feet,” Sealy said. “We’re really holding blockers where they are and taking advantage of that.”

The Bruins and their simplified offense continue into the second half of a four-game home stand Friday and Saturday against Colorado and Utah.