The Penn Stater Magazine

Alyssa D’Errico Shows Us How to Serve (video)

February 23, 2011 at 5:49 pm Ryan Jones 3 comments

Senior Alyssa D’Errico is president of Penn State’s Student-Athlete Advisory Board, which is the sort of thing you might put at the top of your resume if it didn’t mean bumping “four-time NCAA champion.” A co-captain last season with the women’s volleyball team, D’Errico is a back-row specialist who also possesses one of the nastiest jump serves on the squad. We caught up with her in January and asked her to explain that serve — and give us a shot at returning it. She said yes. Ouch.

“I may have shanked that.”

That’s me trying to handle a couple of those serves. Alyssa says that she and sophomore setter Kristin Carpenter have had their serves clocked at 62 mph — tied for fastest on the team — and that they average in the mid-to-high 50s. It’s all about momentum: Alyssa starts with her weight on her right foot, bounces the ball twice, takes three steps (left, right, left), tosses the ball nearly 20 feet in the air, leaps, and swings. In baseball parlance, she can aim for a spot and drill it (fastball), hit a “floater” that acts a bit like a knuckleball, or make it slice like a curve.

As for returning that serve? Well, the idea is not just to “dig” it, but to pass it to where your setter is (usually one of the corners near the net) to set up your team’s attack. That involves accuracy, of which I show absolutely none in the video above.

Oh, and in case the audio isn’t clear, after that first serve, I’m asking Alyssa if she’s serving at, say, 60 percent speed. “Yeah,” she says.

“That’s terrifying,” I say; my arms already sting. At least the next one doesn’t hurt…

“That would be the tail. It was unintentional.”

…because I can’t get near it. That’s the “tail” Alyssa referred to; it looks like it’s heading right for me, until it’s not, hence my shamefully slow reaction and utter failure to dig the ball. She says she didn’t mean to tail it. Sure she didn’t.

After a few more serves, I’ve managed to pass the ball in the general direction of my imaginary setter, but every attempt goes sailing over the net — where, in an actual match, an opposing player would mercilessly smash it for a point. I ask Alyssa what my problem is, and she offers a basic lesson in geometry: My arms are nearly vertical when I meet the ball. I need to get them horizontal. I try that.

“It was close…”

I end up on my butt. (Listen closely and you can hear our associate editor and camerawoman, Mary Murphy, laughing at me. Thanks, Mary.) Still, the ball went almost where I wanted it to. Progress! And finally…

“I hope you got that.”

…a pass I can actually be proud of. Alyssa seems proud, too, in the way a kindergarten teacher is when a pupil figures out how to spell “cat.” I’ll take it.

“…literally glowing pink.”

As you can see, Alyssa would make a great teacher. She told us she’s considering an overseas playing career, but will almost certainly end up coaching, following her mom, Cindy, who played on the U.S. national team and coached Alyssa in high school. It’ll be cool to see her teaching the next generation of jump servers and back-row specialists — though to the latter, I’d recommend wearing long sleeves.

Ryan Jones, senior editor

Entry filed under: Penn State women's volleyball, The Penn Stater magazine. Tags: Alyssa D'Errico, Krisitin Carpenter, NCAA, Russ Rose, Student-Athlete Advisory Board.