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NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament Gets A Technological Twist

University of Oregon

The University of Oregon and other top NCAA women’s volleyball teams will play in theVERT Challenge this today  and Saturday at Matt Knight Arena.

KLCC’s Kira Hoffelmeyer shares the details.

There’s a technological twist to this tournament. It’s called VERTcast. It’s an athletic wearable that presents real-time data during games. But this isn’t the first time it will be used in a high-profile setting.

Credit Courtesy of VERT

“Olympic teams just wore them training for the games,” says Matak.

That’s Martin Matak, the president and founder of VERT. He says the technology is usually reserved for practice, providing a way for coaches to help players prevent injuries.

“Jump load is no joke," says Matak. "You need to know, by practice, what you’re players are doing so they don’t have overuse injuries.”

Matak says the wearable isn’t only used for monitoring preventable injuries.

“It can measure with accuracy how high someone is jumping," says Matak. "It measures how many jumps you did, and that’s that injury prevention side. So, in practice a girl may jump 150 times on the Oregon Ducks team and you may cut them off.”

It can also measure the average height athletes jump. Matak says the newer technology analyzes every movement and the g-force, or acceleration, behind it.

NCAA volleyball teams from the Universities of Florida, Nebraska and Texas will also play in the women’s tournament along with the Ducks.

Follow Kira Hoffelmeyer on Twitter @kirahoffy