LOCAL volleyball enthusiasts would notice a rather unique move in Akari import Annie Mitchem’s attacking arsenal.
The 31-year-old American outside hitter has been the lone foreign guest player to execute the running attack as a signature move of sorts in the 2025 PVL Reinforced Conference so far.
Oftentimes called a slide, a running attack in volleyball happens when a player runs in a diagonal direction from behind the setter and hopping on one leg before spiking the ball.
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Middle blockers are often tasked to perform the slide as the closest player to a setter in a typical volleyball rotation.
That proximity on the court makes the middle blocker the best option to execute a speedy attack intended to out-pace the opposing defenders.
For instance, Chery Tiggo EV’s Aby Maraño has long had the slide as her signature move since college while ZUS Coffee opposite hitter Jovelyn Gonzaga is among the few non-middles to typify the said move.
But why does Mitchem do it on a regular? It’s simply because she was a middle blocker for almost all her life just until she turned pro with Polisportiva Filottrano Pallavolo in Italy in 2017.
“My whole life from until my first year in the pros, I was a middle and that was my favorite attack,” Mitchem shared with SPIN.ph.
“Now, I get to do it again and I’m so happy because in my last seasons, I didn’t get to do it as much.”
She’s been long regarded as the best volleyball player to emerge from Irvine Valley College in California and among the most notable middles from two-time PVL MVP Brooke Van Sickle’s alma mater in the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.
But even in that time, the running attack per se was attributed to her as a signature move because slides are generally uncommon in the international volleyball scene.
The hard and fast attacking nature of spikers in the world stage no longer necessitate the need for a sliding variation in one’s spiking motion.
As Mitchem explains, “I think it depends on certain circumstances. Ut’s normally you just go regular, without the running part, and just go for the regular hit but now, I’m excited to do it again.”
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