How Wisconsin volleyball's 6-2 system allows its setters 'to really be in the fight together' (2024)

It didn’t make sense to MJ Hammill.

The University of Wisconsin volleyball team was in the midst of its international tour this past summer when it decided to try something. Hammill and fellow setter Izzy Ashburn for the past year had run the Badgers offense in a 6-2 system, which means it used two setters within a single set’s rotations.

Badgers coach Kelly Sheffield decided for just a few games to allow Hammill and Ashburn to alternate matches, running a 5-1 where only one setter was used in a given match. That didn’t work for Hammill or Ashburn.

“It seems silly to me for us to practice something that doesn't have the highest ceiling for us,” Hammill said.

The 6-2 is untraditional. The last team to run the system en route to a national championship wasSouthern California in 2003. Yet it’s something the Badgers (18-1, 9-1 Big Ten) have fine-tunedsince implementing the system at the beginning of last season. They do benefit from having two accomplished setters in Ashburn (449 assists this season) and Hammill (279 assists), both captains for Wisconsin this season, but there’s more than that.

The Badgers also are stacked with hitters after the addition of Northwestern transfer outside hitter Temi Thomas-Ailara to a team that already had a potential Big Ten Player of the Year candidate in outside hitter Sarah Franklin as well as Anna Smrek and Devyn Robinson playing the right side. The philosophy of the 6-2 system is not simply to use two setters — that's perhaps the adjustment. The 6-2 system ensures there always are three hitters in the front row, so there’s two subs after three rotations within a set: the setter rotating to the front row from the left back position is replaced by a hitter and the hitter rotating to the back row from right front position is replaced by a setter.

For that reason, Smrek gets all her sets from Hammill and Robinson gets all her sets from Ashburn.

Hammill and Ashburn both mutually realized the benefits of the look and (even after an injury to Hammill forced Ashburn to run the 5-1 for a few matches) the system nowhas been part of the best start in Wisconsin program history. The Badgers won their first 18 matches before a five-set loss to Nebraska on Saturday.

“(It) can be a real problem when you're running a 6-2 if the types of balls that you're putting up are dramatically different and put a lot of stress on the offense and the timing of the offense and the attackers,” Sheffield said. “But they're getting closer to that, and I think that's a big reason why you're seeing our hitting percentages climb from where they were a year ago.”

Wisconsin used a 5-1 alignment with two-time American Volleyball Coaches Association first-team All-American Sydney Hilley running its offense. She played a critical role in the Badgers' first national championship. Ashburn and Hammill both were young setters at the time, with Ashburn arriving in Madison in 2019 and Hammill a year later.

Ashburn and Hammill agreedthere wasn’t any awkwardness but there was competition. Hammill appeared in just 15 sets across her first two seasons, while Ashburn developed a role as a service and defensive specialist in her first few years.

“I want to win,” Ashburn said about her initial role with the team. “And if that's what it was, that's what it was gonna be.”

Hilley's graduation opened the door for an expanded role for both setters, and Sheffield committed to run the 6-2. Hammill said both she and Ashburn trusted their coach and his belief in their mutual ability to run the system.

The rhythm of playing with another setter and getting less rotations on the floor was an adjustment.Hammill and Ashburn have different styles, Ashburn said: in their movement, the way they set and their personalities.

Both committed to finding ways to blend their styles.

“A lot of times as a setter, you're not connecting, you're not connecting (and) you're like, 'What do I need to do?’” Ashburn said. “It's like, 'No, this person's doing it right.’ Stay with it. Make that slight subtle adjustment.”

They naturally have grown more in sync over time. Ashburn and Hammill were separated by more than one assist in just two matches over the five Big Ten matches before Hammill suffered her injury. The two have been separated by more than five assists in just three of seven conference matches they’ve played together this season.

But most important to Hammill and Ashburn, the Badgers rank first in the Big Ten in hitting percentage, hitting .308 as a group. The 6-2 has become consistent, and Wisconsin’s hitters are cashing in.

“It was like, 'OK, competition, bring it on,’” Hammill said. “And then it just so happens that we get to really be in the fight together.”