Serving a purpose

The serve in volleyball is as expressive as it is important. Some players attack the ball with fury. Others play it safely and softly. Either way, it's something that requires quality and accuracy for success.

The Terrapins volleyball team also understands something else necessary to serve well: aggression. Service errors, as unwanted as they are, might not mean that the team is performing poorly.

"You hear often that someone makes too many serving errors, but if you don't serve aggressively, then the other team has an easier job to choose where they're attacking," coach Tim Horsmon said. "You expect if you're the aggressive serving team that you're going to make some errors."

Serving, then, is more than what meets the eye. It can be used not just as a necessary beginning to play, or as a chance for the offense to get a service ace, but as something that can be used for a defensive advantage.

"The objective of the serve is to get the other team out of rhythm," libero Caroline Niski said. "You don't want them to be able to pass it easily, get a good set and get a good hit on you. Those are reasons for what type of serve you should have, so you can throw them off."

Although accuracy is always paramount, many players are taught that the main goal of the serve is to limit the opposition's offensive options, to make it difficult to return the ball with any chance of scoring. When the Terps face offensive powerhouses, they may actually risk the chance of a service error in exchange for a more difficult serve and added pressure on the other side.

"We serve short sometimes to get them out of position," Horsmon said. "Serving is definitely a big component of what you're trying to do. If you can get teams out on their passing, you obviously are going to have a bigger chance of winning."

To throw off their opponents, the Terps make use of several different types of serves. One example is the kind setter Remy McBain prefers: the deep float serve. Positioning herself as far back as possible, she hits the ball with no spin, making it travel in an unpredictable fashion, as a knuckleball in baseball might.

Before arriving at this university, McBain used a jump float serve.

"With that serve, you attack the ball at the end line, and since you're jumping, you reach a higher point, and the ball will go straight over the net instead of rising and falling," she said.

The Terps also often rely on the jump serve, which uses topspin to make it travel straight, but also causes it to fall quicker than usual.

"Ideally, you want a lot of different looks with floaters, topspin serves and deep serves," Horsmon said. "You just want different looks of serves to have an edge."

Serves can do a variety of things — they can immediately score a point, ruin the rhythm of the opponent or aggressively pursue a momentum change. The silence that fills the gym at home — or the noise that dominates on the road — only serves to increase the drama.

"A lot of people compare our serves to basketball free throws," outside hitter Carlisle Abele said. "Everything gets quiet when you bounce the ball, and everything slows down."

munson@umdbk.com