By CONOR NICHOLL

cnicholl@dailynews.net

From a variety of controversial rules to scheduling to preseason practice venues, the Fort Hays State University volleyball team encountered a bevy of changes for its 2008 season.

Every collegiate volleyball team in the country encountered several rule changes that will affect play. For the Tigers, it was to start this morning at the five-team West Texas A&M Tournament in Canyon, Texas. Fort Hays was to open the season against Texas' Abilene Christian University.

In past years, teams have played each game to 30 points. Now, they will play sets -- a change in terminology -- to 25 points, the same number used in high school and international play. The fifth set will still be played to 15 points.

According to the NCAA Rules Committee, contests played to 30 points demonstrated a decrease in the intensity in the middle of the sets.

Few players and coaches, especially in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, like the rule change.

"It is going to have to be really intense the whole game," Tiger senior middle hitter Leanna Roberts said. "There is going to have to be no periods of letdown."

Players will lose out on a minimum of 15 points every match. Over a four-year period, that equates out to approximately half a season.

"I kind of see it that if we play a five-game match, we are losing out on 20 points so that kind of hurts, so that kind of frustrates me," Tiger senior setter Whitney Hoffman said.

Jason Skoch, head coach for No. 3 ranked and defending MIAA champion Truman State (Mo.) University, said the coaches filed an appeal.

"I hate the rule change, but we aren't one of the big sports," coach Jason Skoch told the Index, the paper that regularly covers Truman sports. "The change is ridiculous. The (NCAA) wouldn't have done something this dramatic to one of the big sports when the majority of the coaches voted against it."

The scoring reduction also lowered the number of substitutions for each set. Instead of 15 subs, teams can only use 12 subs, another difference that players and coaches aren't happy with.

"I don't like it at all," Washburn University coach Chris Herron told the Topeka Capital-Journal. "It eliminates opportunities for kids with less points and less substitutions. I can't get kids in the game like I used to, and that cheats the college athlete. I have no use for the changes."

The 12 subs could affect the Tigers' lineup, especially if they decide to run a 6-2 offense.

Several players who would push for playing time might have to be on the bench more often.

"It makes getting your starting position more competitive," Tiger coach Steve Smith said. "With 15 subs, I could probably run our 6-2 offense, meaning we sub our setters out of the front row for bigger players, to provide a bigger block and that would maybe give us another backrow sub for another one of our outside hitters that would need it.

Now with 12, with the 6-2 offense, it is going to eat up subs pretty quick, so we might have to wait later in the game to use a sub for one of the other players, so it does cut down on opportunities," he added.

The MIAA, which placed five teams in the top 17 in the preseason American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll, also changed its schedule. In the last two seasons, the conference split into divisions and played an unbalanced schedule.

In 2007, the Tigers only played some MIAA squads once, while other teams they played twice. At the end of the season, the top four teams in each division met for the conference tournament and the winner of the tourney was guaranteed a NCAA tournament bid.

Now, the conference will play 20 matches instead of 13 and won't have the conference tourney. Teams will have to earn a NCAA berth (usually given to the top five MIAA squads) through the regular season.

Fort Hays will play each opponent in a home-and-home series, including University of Nebraska-Omaha, which begins its first season in the MIAA this fall.

"I like playing both here and away because ... our home base can actually see the competition that we are actually playing," Hoffman said. "Truman, Central Missouri, we played there and no one saw how good they were. The community will be able to see ... what caliber of teams we are playing."

The Tigers also have had a unique preseason practice arrangement. Fort Hays and Truman State (which lost its gym until October because of a summer flood) have both not had their usual practice facilities.

For the Tigers, ongoing construction on the new bleachers and chairback seating in Gross Memorial Coliseum has forced the team to use alternative gyms inside GMC. In its Black and Gold scrimmage last Saturday, Fort Hays had to play in the Hays Recreation Center.

The HRC had low ceilings and caused multiple balls to ricochet off the walls. Hoffman called the facilities "frustrating."

Hoffman's status

Hoffman, the Tigers' returning starting setter and a Hays High graduate, has been battling a knee problem but is expected to play in Fort Hays' four opening matches at West Texas A&M this weekend. In 2007, Hoffman led the team with 11.92 assists per game, a number that ranked 39th nationally.

Hoffman hurt the knee in the first week of practice and had a MRI.

"I have a strained MCL and a bone bruise ...," she said. "I don't know. I am just hoping to get through the season with it."

Scouting the tournament

The Tigers will play Abilene Christian, Texas A&M International, Texas-Permian Basin and West Texas A&M, one of the country's top teams. Fort Hays lost 3-1 to Abilene Christian in 2007 and has never played International or Permian.

Fort Hays is 3-2-1 lifetime against West Texas with the last match coming in 2005.

"Probably the team that we are going to have the toughest time with is West Texas A&M," Smith said. "They are ranked fifth, they were in the final eight last year, although Abilene Christian, who we start with first, is a very good program."