Turned off by terrible serving

NCAA men's volleyball can be a tough TV 'watch' because of a high volume of service errors

So much volleyball I wanted to sample was played on Friday and Saturday that I just got around to catching the NCAA men's match from Friday night between Penn State and host Loyola on ESPN+.

Unfortunately, I didn't see much volleyball because both teams insisted on serving into net or out: 45 combined serving errors in four sets (24 by Penn State and 21 by victorious Loyola). Too many! Enough to make me pull the plug on the replay before the Ramblers' "W" had been finalized.

Would tennis fans stick around to watch a match in which both competitors rang up double-fault after double-fault?

Loyola had 24% of its 99 points handed to it on serving errors. The Ramblers' errant serves accounted for 25% of Penn State's 83 points. These are two nationally ranked squads with NCAA title aspirations and they can't serve the ball in consistently. No rallies were seen in one out of four points.

The "grip it and rip it" mantra in men's volleyball -- rationalized by the belief that to score "real" points, opponents need to be forced out of system -- frequently creates unwatchable, aesthetically unpleasing, mind-numbingly boring volleyball.

I also question the logical underpinnings of max-effort "grip it and rip it." If real points were impossible to score unless teams are out of system, why do we commonly see points scored by the team that scrambles to send a free ball over? Isn't a block or a dig possible any time the opponent is forced to handle the ball? Aren't free balls and down balls easier to handle in theory than serves?

Guess what the outcome was of the top-spin jump serve launched by Loyola's Jake Read in the accompanying photo? It flew into the middle of the net.