Starting around 2018, engineers made volleyballs less aerodynamic on purpose. Older volleyballs had 18 panels, while the newer ones had 8. This difference in panel orientation caused one of the faces of the ball to be more aerodynamic than the others, making playing unpredictable. If an athlete hit the ball from one of its faces, it could go farther than if the same athlete hit the same ball from a different side, due to the drag from the air moving around it. To make each hit more consistent, a new volleyball was created with 18 panels that had an updated shape and orientation. This ball has similar aerodynamics across all of its faces, so even though one of the old 18 panel volleyball’s faces was more aerodynamic than any of the faces on the new ball, the new ball helps make performance a lot more consistent.