In today’s world of football’s ‘West Coast Offense,’ baseball’s home run chases and basketball’s isolation defense, bigger and faster is better.

Volleyball is no longer an exception to that rule.

Starting this season, collegiate volleyball will use the rally scoring system. Under rally scoring, points can be scored on every play; regardless of which team is serving. Under the traditional scoring method, points could only be scored on a serve.

The change was made in part, to speed up the game. The NCAA is hoping it will also broaden the sports fan base.

Volleyball purists, if there are such fans, may cringe, but coaches and players are in favor of the new system.

Eastern head volleyball coach Brenda Winkeler is one the strongest advocates for the change.

“I’m very excited about the change,” she said. “I think it’ll bring more excitement to the sport.”

“I haven’t come across anyone who doesn’t like it,” said senior middle hitter Leslie Przekwas. “We want to see if we can get more people involved in the sport and we think this change can do that.”

The Panthers averaged 341 fans per match in 12 home dates last season. So if anything, curiosity about the new format could bring in more fans.

Purists may say that rally scoring puts less of an emphasis on defense, because essentially the traditional defense to force a side-out would be abandoned. Serving would lose importance because the team that isn’t serving can do the scoring.

Actually, there’s a greater emphasis on serving, because a serve in the net or any other type of service error no longer results in a side-out. Instead, a service error means a point for the opposing team.

Defense is also crucial, as a defender’s mistake is an opponent’s gain.

Purists may argue that rally scoring puts volleyball, a team sport, on the same level with individual sports like tennis and ping-pong. Some of the strategy involved will be taken away.

In fact, more strategies are involved, and the decision of how to serve becomes more complex than ever before.

An aggressive serve can provide big dividends for a team, but at the same time, the risk of making an error is greater. A less powerful serve decreases the chance of an error, but at the same time, is easier to return for a point.

Offensive and defensive strategies can mesh together, creating more excitement.

“A coach was telling me they were at the NCAA championships and the score was 11-2 and they went to the bathroom,” Winkeler said. “When they came back it was still 11-2. That wouldn’t happen under this system.”

In a sense, the hierarchy in volleyball is taken away, meaning some errors are bigger than others. In rally scoring, no error is bigger than another. Momentum swings are more common and points can be given just as easily as they are taken away.

Point taken – volleyball is exciting. No matter who plays it, men or women, the NCAA has heightened that excitement. Now, hopefully even more fans will see take that point.