Strikin’ Micha:
The setter with the lethal serve
t’s bad enough that Micha Hancock’s serve hits you like a fire hose, but then you factor in that she is left-handed, and it becomes worse still because it’s hooking the wrong way. Part of that has to do with the way she strikes it. Unlike traditional jump serves, it doesn’t have true topspin. She usually con- tacts it from the side, the left side, like a cut shot on steroids. “It’s a challenge to prepare for if you don’t have a southpaw in the stable,” Penn State Coach Russ Rose says. “You can’t (simulate it) with the same trajectory.” Wisconsin Coach Kelly Sheffield, whose team lost to Hancock and Penn State in the NCAA Division I final, went as far as to say “there was no offense when she was serving,” meaning that Hancock’s hooking heat put his team so far out of system that it was basically just trying to stay in the point.
I
Hancock, a junior setter from Edmond, Okla., said the evolution of her serve started early in her life when she was trying to keep up with her sister, Kelsey, who is three years older and played outside hitter at University of Tulsa. “My sister used to (hit a jump serve), and I wanted to be just like her,” Micha says. “So I tried it, and I just tried to hit it hard, and I made a lot of errors. … I definitely chipped away at it. But the side spin thing kind of started in college, really. If I didn’t have a good toss, I just managed it that way. That’s kind of how it went.”
When you learn a little about the Hancock
family, it’s easy to understand how Micha (pronounced MIKE-uh) became a power server. Her dad, Mike, is a big guy – really big – and he was a professional boxer in Oklahoma. After retiring from boxing with an 11-2 record, he switched to power-lifting: his best squat, dead lift and bench total was a hefty 1,805 pounds. After that, he worked 20 years as a prison correctional officer, teaching self-defense.
“I taught my girls self-defense tactics,” he said. “Both of them can take care of them- selves.”
And they both got a double dose of good genes. Micha’s mom, Kelly, played basket- ball at Oklahoma State and was also a body builder. With Micha’s power serve comes a risk- reward ratio that sometimes draws feedback from her coach. At one point in the title match, after she’d logged three service errors,
Rose asked her if she wanted to switch to the jump floater. Her answer?
“Sometimes players swear at coaches,” Rose said. “And I was like, ‘Then you might want to serve it in.’” And so she did. With Wisconsin up 23- 21 in the fourth and threatening to push the match to a fifth game, she ripped four serves
for four points in a row to clinch the title. Awhile later, Sheffield was asked if he considers a successful pass of a Micha Han- cock serve to be anything inside the 10-foot line.
He all but snorted and answered: “I con- sider a successful pass on her anything up in the air inside the court.”
USAVOLLEYBALL.ORG | 43
HAMMERING HANCOÇK: Micha Hancock’s serving was a huge part of Penn State’s success. (Photo: Mark Selders)
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80