Volleyball recruiting benchmarks

What is a good assists per set for a volleyball defensive specialist?

Athlete Quotient's D1 benchmark for a volleyball defensive specialist is 0.231. The D2 rung is 0.226, D3 is 0.221 and high school varsity is 0.216. The elite D1 rung is 1.000.

The assists per set ladder for a defensive specialist

Athlete Quotient assists per set benchmark ladder - volleyball defensive specialist.
RungAssists Per Set
D1 elite1.000
D10.231
D20.226
D30.221
HS varsity0.216

The number that actually matters

The distance from the high school varsity rung (0.216) to the D1 rung (0.231) is 0.015. That gap is the actual answer to "is my number good" - not a yes or a no, but a distance you can train against.

Find out where your number lands

A benchmark tells you the bar. Your AQ Score tells you where you stand against it - all five dimensions, your gaps, and the level you actually fit, scored by the same engine this ladder comes from. Your first score is free.

Get my free AQ Score

Not sure it is worth it? See a full sample report first.

Common questions

What is a good assists per set for a volleyball defensive specialist?

Athlete Quotient's D1 benchmark for a volleyball defensive specialist is 0.231. The D2 rung is 0.226, D3 is 0.221 and high school varsity is 0.216. The elite D1 rung is 1.000.

What assists per set do you need for D2 or D3 volleyball?

For a volleyball defensive specialist, the D2 rung is 0.226 and the D3 rung is 0.221. The D1 rung sits at 0.231, and the same rule applies at every level: the number that matters is your distance to the rung above.

What is a good assists per set for a 15 year old?

Athlete Quotient benchmarks by level, not age. A 15 year old on varsity measures against the same high school varsity rung (0.216) as a 17 year old, because college coaches recruit against the level an athlete plays at, not the birthday. What changes with age is time - how many training seasons remain to close the gap to the next rung.

How to read this

Each rung is a bar on the Athlete Quotient benchmark ladder - the same tables the scoring engine uses, exported from it rather than retyped, so this page can never quietly disagree with a score. Being under a rung does not close a door; it tells you the size of the gap, which is the only number you can actually train against.

These are Athlete Quotient's own benchmarks. Where a published college figure exists we use it; where none exists, the rung is ours. We would rather say that than claim a source we do not have.

Go deeper