The scoring power of three overseas players: making—and breaking—the 3+1 attack

Josephine Obossa, Weronika Szlagowska and Diana Meliushkyna gave Toray Shiga a productive attacking combination in S5, with all three in the front row.

S5 places the setter in the left-back position, allowing three front-row attackers.

Across the opening two matches, with all three overseas-quota players on court, Toray Shiga won 14 of 18 receiving rallies in this rotation: a 77.8% side-out rate.

Szlagowska contributed four attack points and one block; Obossa three attack points and one block. Meliushkyna added an attack point. All three scored in attack, while blocks also helped win back the serve.

Another configuration with the trio together, S4, produced 13 side-outs in 19 rallies, or 68.4%.

Overall, Toray Shiga won 41 of 60 receiving rallies with three overseas-quota players, a 68.3% side-out rate. S4 and S5 accounted for 27 points from 37 rallies. These two rotations showed the team’s strength in scoring after receiving serve.

In the second match, Osaka MV scored with Hanna Orthmann, Glayce Vasconcelos and Brionne Butler on court together.

Their scoring rate with the trio was 56.3%. On serve in particular, they won 14 of 29 rallies.

Vasconcelos’s serve yielded five points from eight rallies; Butler’s yielded four from six. The combination of the server and the players waiting at the net helped create consecutive points.

The fourth set brought those contributions together.

Trailing 8–10, Osaka MV had Vasconcelos serving. Butler’s block made it 9–10, and another Osaka MV point levelled the score. A second Butler block then put them ahead, 11–10.

Orthmann, Vasconcelos and Butler remained on court throughout the three rallies. Start with the serve and finish with the block: it was a clear expression of the strength of on-the-court three.

A Aichi used overseas-quota players Jineiry Martinez, Laura Kunzler and Lindsey Ruddins alongside Asian-quota setter Nootsara Tomkom in the first match.

The 3+1 lineup played 89 rallies and scored 41 points, a 46.1% scoring rate. In reception, it won 26 of 40 rallies for a 65.0% side-out rate.

Middle blocker Martinez was a particularly productive scorer.

With this lineup, she scored 14 attack points and three blocks. Kunzler added four attack points, while Ruddins contributed one attack point, one block and one ace.

In S3, with Nootsara in the front row, A Aichi scored on eight of 11 opponent serves: a 72.7% side-out rate. The 3+1 formation regained serve effectively even with the setter in front.

The appeal of 3+1 goes beyond the number of powerful hitters: it also accommodates the setter who organizes those attacks. Martinez’s 14 attack points made her a major source of scoring in A Aichi’s opener.

Against that 3+1 formation, SAGA Hisamitsu also built scoring runs from serve.

At 17–20 in the opening set of the first match, Shion Hirayama served and Mika Yoshitake scored in attack to make it 18–20. Another rally won brought SAGA Hisamitsu within one, 19–20.

Hirayama kept serving, and Ayaka Araki’s block levelled the score at 20–20. A Aichi had its 3+1 lineup on court for all three rallies.

Kunzler’s reception was disrupted in the first two rallies, and SAGA Hisamitsu scored in transition. On the third point, A Aichi returned the reception, but Araki finished the rally with her block.

Considering only rallies against A Aichi’s 3+1 in the first match, Hirayama’s serve produced three points from seven rallies, and Araki’s also produced three from seven. Combined, that was six points in 14 rallies, a 42.9% break-point rate.

Limit the opponent’s attacking options with serve, then score when the ball comes back. Against an organized attack, finish with a block. Hirayama, Yoshitake and Araki each used their own strengths to win points against the 3+1 lineup.

Japanese players sharing the court with three overseas-quota players also have roles that generate points.

Osaka MV’s Haruka Oyama served nine times with the trio on court, and the team scored four points: a 44.4% break-point rate.

In the fourth set, a long rally on Butler’s serve ended with Oyama’s attack making it 13–11. An overseas player served, and a Japanese middle scored. Oyama was part of the attack within the three-player formation.

Mizuki Tanaka also played in that lineup. In the third set, her attack on Butler’s serve made it 9–6. Even with all three overseas-quota players present, sets went to a Japanese attacker and became points.

Alongside reception and digging, strengths that can earn playing time include generating runs from serve, joining the attack as a middle, and finishing a transition opportunity.

Four points on Oyama’s serve, Tanaka’s attack, Hirayama’s serve and Araki’s block: the opening round showed Japanese players supporting lineups with three overseas-quota players and scoring against them.

This weekend, the men’s competition gets fully underway. Alongside powerful hitters from across the world, some of the world’s finest setters and liberos will take the court.

Last season, Antoine Brizard—part of France’s back-to-back Olympic gold-medal teams—led Osaka B to the title. This season, his national-team teammate and fellow two-time Olympic champion, libero Jenia Grebennikov, joins WD Nagoya.

The chemistry created by on-the-court three, and the efforts of Japanese players to make their presence felt within it: there is so much to look forward to.