BP Daily Podcast

The thing about volleyball positions is that while players technically have to rotate after each side out, once the ball is live, they may move where they choose. You'll often see "real" volleyball teams line up with the front line players in a little clump by the net arranged so that one is technically on the left-center-right of the others, but then re-arrange themselves quickly after the serve goes up so that the player who is a middle hitter (vs. the outside hitters) get into their "natural" positions, rather than the one that is "assigned" to them. Volleyball also has much looser substitution rules than baseball (a player may enter/exit 3 times in a set), which leads to some specialization of backcourt vs. frontcourt-only players. Also, there has been a recent introduction of the "libero" position, who is a defensive specialist who stays int he backcourt and can not approach the net (nor serve, if I remember correctly) and who does not rotate.