The most important position on the court?

by Blair Morse
Special to DigitalSports

Long-time high school volleyball fans may have been scratching their heads the last few seasons when they saw one player wearing a different colored jersey than the rest of her teammates.

South River (Md.) senior Kate Johnson’s father certainly was alarmed when he arrived at a tournament, only to find Kate wearing one color jersey and her teammates all wearing a different color.

“He thought I’d forgotten my jersey,” Johnson said.

In fact, Johnson was wearing the proper jersey. She was just playing the relatively new position of libero.

Pronounced Lee-Beh-Roh, the word is Italian and means, “free.” The position was officially implemented in the high school volleyball rulebook in 2006, though it was used on a trial basis in prior years. Heading into the Maryland state volleyball playoffs, it may be the most important position on the court for a number of Anne Arundel County teams.

So, what exactly is the libero? And what do they do?

“I really look for that person to be the quarterback of the defense,” Severna Park coach Jamie Leventry said.

Officially, the libero is one player designated prior to the start of the game – hence the different colored jersey – to play in the back row, and only the back row. The libero can not attack a ball at the net, nor can they set up a hitter from the front row.

The libero can replace any player in the back row, but when substituted out, must be replaced by the same player. Most importantly for coaches, the libero does not count as one of the game’s 18 substitutions. Liberos can be substituted freely in the back row.

Prior to this season, liberos were not allowed to serve, but that rule has been amended, much to the delight of the coaches.

“That is a plus,” South River coach Maureen Carter said. “Because sometimes you were sacrificing that serve of that person in order to play her libero, but that’s not the case anymore.

“The libero can strengthen your defense, as well as your passing game because it can allow one person to be in for five rotations – which is almost the entire game, and it can make a huge impact on your defensive game.”

Casual volleyball fans are drawn to the high-flying, hard-hitting attacking aspect of the game. But, the flip side of all that hard hitting is the potential for breathtaking defensive plays on the other side of the net.

Too often, defensive players who were not tall, or particularly good hitters, were forced to come out of the game, thus leaving a less skilled defensive player in the back row.

“To be honest, it makes the game a lot more enjoyable to watch,” Leventry said. “There’s longer rallies and more defensive players in the game who can make a spectacular play. There’s been a couple matches this year where we weren’t playing well and our libero made a big defensive play. It stepped our game up.”

Johnson’s freshman season was one of the first years of the libero and she was put at the position full time right away. Now, it’s almost all she plays for both South River and her club team, the Bay Area Volleyball Academy.

“I can remember back with Kate when she was beginning as a freshman, her passing started to develop more naturally than her hitting,” Carter said.

The first touch on the defensive side of the ball is all important in high school volleyball. A bad first touch and it’s hard for the setter to get a clean pass to a hitter for a viable attack.

So while the libero needs to be able to make the spectacular play on defense, they also need to be able to control the opponent’s hits and get the ball up to the front line, where the setter and hitters can do their thing.

“She’s really going to be your best control person,” Old Mill coach Sam Myers said. “The person you want to be in front of the ball when it’s hit hard at you."

“How a player can move, and their speed is very big with me (for the libero),” Carter added. “Kate’s passing is a strength and she has learned to try to read the hitter and sometimes that just puts her in perfect position to dig a ball.”

As if the different colored jersey wasn’t enough to single out the libero, sometimes practice can be a lonely place.

“In practice, I don’t do hitting drills,” Johnson said. “When the hitters are doing their hitting, I go to the other side and practice my digging.”

Johnson, who admits she was confused about the position at first, is looking at furthering her career as a libero in college, with Mary Washington and Elon College on her list. The senior is always the libero for the Seahawks and is a mainstay in her coach’s game plan. But, every team uses their libero in a different way.

Myers likes to use his libero, Leslie McColgan, lined up on the outside left to absorb the blows of most teams biggest hitters – who are usually lined up on the outside right.

"It's a lot of work and you have to fight hard," said McColgan, a senior, who hopes to play volleyball next year at Alleghany College. "It's a tough job defending all the big hitters. I've played club volleyball for the last four years so the one good thing is that I know most of the girls and have a good idea of how they hit."

In the offseason, McColgan also plays with BAVA, which has helped her get a read on different opponents.

"You have to watch their arm stretch and line up corrcetly when passing," she said. "I'm all over the court but I definitely have a read on most players and what their strengths are."

Leventry used three different liberos in the Falcons' five-game win over South River two weeks ago. He has a number of players capable of playing the position and adjusts depending on the strengths. His main liberos are a pair of sophomores, Carli Converse and Sam Henke.

“Carli is very athletic, very quick. She’s a very good passer and serve receiver,” Leventry said. “Sam is also very good at serve receive and her defense is amazing. She reads a play better than anybody I’ve seen in this area in a while.

“Sam is also an outside hitter though and when she’s having an off-night hitting, I can bring someone else in to hit, but I need her defense on the floor always.”

For South River, Johnson can even affect the opponent’s serve. She says the libero jersey makes it like a poker game. Everyone knows the person wearing the different color jersey is a good defensive player, so they will often avoid serving to her. But, in some cases you can hide your worst passer in the position, too.

Either way, come playoff season, opponents would be wise to think twice before they hit to the girl in the different colored uniform.