Grand View University used Hudl to gain key insights during the 2018 NAIA Men’s Volleyball Invitational.

With just 2,000 students enrolled, Grand View University may be a small college, but they've proved to be a volleyball powerhouse. Both the men's and women's programs capped off the success of several seasons with the 2018 Heart of America Conference Championships, as well as a 2018 Men's Volleyball National Championship. So how did a school with limited resources pull it off? Men’s Volleyball head coach Donan Cruz credits their recent success to Hudl.

Grand View doesn’t have the staff to dedicate to countless hours of breaking down, uploading and sharing video, but they do have Hudl’s full suite of products. Cruz’s team currently uses Hudl Assist to get the specific stats, reports and breakdowns they need to win—but Cruz is also excited about Hudl’s recent technology Volleymetrics, and the success those tools may bring his team in the future.

“Having [Volleymetrics] under the [Hudl] umbrella means that volleyball is a huge priority. As a technological, film-based program, Hudl just upped the ante by blending the two together—you can just tell it’s a volleyball platform." Donan Cruz, Grand View University Men's Volleyball Head Coach

Hudl helped Grand View find their groove over several seasons, leading to qualifying for the 2018 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Men’s Invitational. But their most difficult challenge was still ahead of them.

In most arenas, a team is given at least 24 waking hours to prep for the next match. Not in the Invitational. After competing Thursday night, Grand View had only 14 hours to prepare for the biggest match-up of their season the following afternoon.  

Hudl’s support team was on site at the tournament to capture video of the matches. The video was uploaded to Hudl for each team to review, and matches were also quickly broken down through Assist. This gave coaches the ability to view the analysis to prep for their next match.

“Without the turnarounds that Hudl did for us, we wouldn’t have been able to even scratch the surface on the data we really wanted,” said Cruz.

Part of the data Hudl uncovered helped Grand View read the tendencies of their opponent Missouri Baptist, including key insights into their middle blocker.

At the end of the day, if you use [Hudl] you can give better data to your players. If your players are more educated, they can perform at a higher level. If they perform at a higher level, then the level of volleyball that we’re putting on for our spectators and prospects and student-athletes puts our sport in a better light against other divisions. Donan Cruz, Head Coach

Grand View was able to win three out of the four sets against Missouri Baptist and advance to the championship game the next day, where they defeated Benedictine-Mesa for the 2018 NAIA Men’s Volleyball National Championship. Cruz isn't sure the outcome would have been the same without Hudl's help.

But to Cruz, it’s not all about the products—customer service is just as valuable.

“Anyone could provide a pretty good product or platform, but to be able to say the customer service is going to match the product is a whole other thing,” said Cruz.

Hudl provided on-site support as the official video analysis and exchange solution for the NAIA. Cruz was a user and advocate of Hudl prior to this partnership and was excited for other teams to experience it.

We’ve always been big fans of the platform that Hudl has provided for film exchange and the analytical side of the breakdowns, so when we were able to partner up with Hudl for the national tournament it was a really cool opportunity for us to be able to share that same platform with other universities that maybe haven’t used it. Donan Cruz, Head Coach

Grand View is looking forward to next year’s Men’s Volleyball Invitational where they’ll defend their title on their own court.  

See how Hudl’s video analysis and stat tracking helps teams improve.