Rams' offensive spark plugs

The Scott City volleyball team has put on an offensive show nearly every time it's stepped onto the court during its run to a second consecutive final four in Kansas City, Mo.

The ball is slammed to the court by no fewer than six different players and the kills come from all along the net and from just over as well as high above the top of it. They attack from the front row and the back.

Even in warmups, the Rams' hitters are hard to ignore. Saturday, when the Scott City players took the floor for the first time to prepare for their sectional match, the crowd fell suddenly silent as it turned its collective attention to the prelude to the real performance.

Yes, the hitters are the stars of the show, but setters Katie Diebold and Jordan McFall are the undisputed directors.

"The setter runs the floor," outside hitter Mikah Simpson said during her team's practice Monday. "No doubt about it. It doesn't matter if it's a good or bad pass, they have to be there. They're the ones that have to be talking the whole time.

Scott City senior Jordan McFall serves during a match earlier this season. (Kit Doyle)

"They run the plays. They run the floor."

And they make all of the decisions. Because the Rams employ two different setters, they have three available hitters and blockers at the net at all times plus another hitter in the back row for good measure.

"It's really important," said Scott City coach Haley Jennings of her team's ability to run a two-setter offense, "especially when other teams have three big hitters on the front row. It's just really good that we can have a block on all of it."

According to McFall, there are more than 10 options for her and Diebold to choose from each time the ball is in their hands.

They could choose one of five different spots to set their middle attacker. Or, depending on the player, two or three spots to place the ball for an outside attacker. There's always an option to back set and three more choices should they decide to set to the back-row attacker.

Rams setters Jordan McFall, above, and Katie Diebold, below, have combined for 722 assists this season. (Kit Doyle)

"When we warm up, we see who is on, like which hitter is on," McFall said. "Obviously if the hitter is not on, we're not going to set them. So that's our goal to try to get as many points as we can."

Communicating with their teammates is one of the setters' most important jobs with so many options and an increased emphasis on running a quick offense this year.

Typically, Diebold and McFall will use hand signals to tell their teammates where the first set will go before a point begins then switch to verbal communication.

"In an important rally, you'll hear the hitters call a certain hit and then the setter knows where to set it," McFall said.

Jennings leaves all decisions about where the ball should go to her setters.

Scott City's Katie Diebold sets the ball during a match earlier this season. (Fred Lynch)

"We always try to tell them to mix it up, and the hitters know what they're comfortable with and know what can get the easy points," Jennings said.

The Rams expect to face some of their toughest competition of the year at the final four, particularly in defending state champion Hermann, the team that defeated Scott City in the championship match a year ago.

"Last year I don't think our offense was quick enough," Diebold said. "Hermann caught on to a lot of our sets and we needed to work on our passing because last year Hermann, they out-hit us."

As a result, Scott City added more speed to its repertoire, but that also means the setters must be more precise.

"They honestly have the hardest job and the most weight on their shoulders throughout the entire game," senior Brooke Simpson said. "All of the hitters expect perfect sets from them and they work hard."

Scott City's Katie Diebold sets during the Rams' sectional win over Senath-Hornersville Saturday, October 31, 2009, in Piedmont. (Kit Doyle)

Asking for perfect sets is not petty pickiness on the part of Scott City hitters. It's necessary in a quick offense because hitters have less time to adjust to sets that are even slightly off the mark.

"That's the only way we're going to be able to get the ball over and get the point," Brooke Simpson said. "So I mean of course we're going to want them perfect, but we have to work together. We have to have the perfect pass, the perfect set and the perfect hit to get it right."

The Rams know that playing at one speed, however fast, won't work, which makes using all of their options important for Diebold and McFall.

"If you get up against a good team, they're going to know what to do if you run a quick," Diebold said, referring to a short, quick set just above the net to a middle hitter. "They're going to know how to block them in the middle. If you keep doing that quick over and over, they're eventually going to click and they're going to block you every single time.

"But if you keep running those blockers through the net, they're not going to know what's coming. They're not going to know to set up in the middle to block that set. They're just not going to know."

Of course, it helps when your options happen to be a bunch of all-state and all-region players.

"I know that no matter where I'm at on the court, if I'm pulled all the way to the left or all the way to the right and I can't get it to a middle, I have two people on the outside that I can set, and I have a person in the back that I can set that I know that I'm confident in setting and they'll get a kill off of it," Diebold said.

And it'll make for a good show when they do.

"My offense is very important to me because I am a setter," McFall said. "I am one of the main people, me and Katie both, we're the main people on the court. We have to control it."

That is something they do well, according to their coach.

"Without them, we wouldn't have the hitters that we do," Jennings said. "We have two really good setters. They do a good job of placing the ball where it needs to go. Without them, we wouldn't be where we are for sure."