Volleyball question

From the world and U.S. governing bodies (they both have the same wording):

 

AP stylebook says game.

volleyball Games are won by the first team to score 15 points, unless it is necessary to continue until one team has a two-point spread.

Use a match summary. Example:

National AAU Men’s Volleyball

First Round

New York AC def. Illinois AC 15-7, 12-15, 19-17.

Vesper Boat Club, Philadelphia, def. Harvard 15-7, 15-8.

However, USA Volleyball uses set:

http://www.usavolleyball.org/VolleyballNews/news.asp?id=1778

 

Man, HS volleyball starts THIS early for you?

 

I really should have checked the stylebook.

 

I say go with game. Gov bodies might say set, but to me it just doesn't sound right. To win a set in tennis you have to win six or more games. Because you only play three to five in volleyball sets aren't needed.

 

I know I posted what the AP Stylebook said to use, but my paper uses set for two reasons:

1) To stay consistent with tennis; use set for both.
2) Some coaches - and even players - refer to game when they should be using "match" instead. Like, "Tomorrow's game with Podunk City is huge as far as seeding is concerned for the postseason tournament."

So we use set and match and game (only in a quote). Granted we're not in a volleyball mecca - have had to deal with the sport for less than 7 years - and many readers, too, think game and match can be interchanged, but yet they seem to know what a set is.

 

That's the problem with volleyball, especially on the prep level. Even some of the coaches you will run into don't really know what the heck they are talking about.

At least a quarter of the programs we dealt with at my last stop were barely above the level of a Phys. Ed class pick-up game.

 

Having played volleyball, the proper word is game and the whole kabuna is match.

 

In international play, they're going more towards "set" rather than "game" these days.

 

We had those a lot, too. Of course, where I lived in Kentucky there were still programs teaching their girls to serve underhand.

 

Why do volleyball and tennis have to be comparable?

I play and coach volleyball. Anybody who says "set'' is an idiot. You play a match, which is best of five games. Why would you try to confuse your readers with "sets?'' Because tennis is that way? Plus, tennis plays games, which result in sets, which result in a match. There's one level more than volleyball.

If your coaches confuse games and matches, just change it to what they mean.

PS to the guy who thinks games are to 15 - thats about three or 4 years ago. Games are now rally-scoring to 25.

 

Digger,

1) I guess USA Volleyball and the AVP are idiots, since they are using "set" in their releases?

2) The play to 15 was per the AP Stylebook.