I have a Nikon D7000 that i'm shooting sports with?

I'm attempting to get individual shots of Volleyball players indoors.
My problem is I'm having trouble getting the camera to fire fast enough to catch the action of the players.
I've talked to some friends and they feel its got something to do with my focal points. I've adjusted the focus metering button but have the same results. We're wondering if the reason it sometimes doesn't shoot, is if its focusing on two many faces (which I can see several boxes in my viewfinder.
ANY suggestions on where to go to reduce my focal points to the single one (vs finding 4/5+ faces) would be fantastic. Thanks ahead of time.

Added (1). I'm not far off the court. And I've not tried Manual. Sometimes there just isn't enough time to adjust, but might try it again tomorrow. I got the single focal point set (using AF/M switch and button). Not sure if it will help, but will find out tomorrow. I do know that I've got only the 1 focal square vs. 4+ focal squares now, when I focus my camera.

Added (2). FYI - Love my camera. I'm a beginner photographer. Two friends that are far more experienced and shoot weddings, sports, seniors and more.own the Nikon 300 and 700. Both have said my D7000 is equivilant to their D700s' (with the exception of DX vs FX) - in general - they said they were very impressed! So yes - Get it. I suggest highly.

Change the focus mode to single focus point. Page 96 in your manual.

I guess that you are off the court and some distance away. Why not set your camera to manual focus, then focus on the area where you would expect the player to be. You should be set up then to follow the action and shoot your shot. No lag for auto shutter to adjust. Faster shutter speed? Just a thought. Maybe set to infinity? I used this when I was taking action shots years ago whith an old SLR.

Okay.

When shooting sports indoors, you need to get a good meter reading of the court and set your cameras white balance to match the lighting.

Here is such a shot (basketball instead of volleyball) with the older D300 set to 3200 ISO, white balance set to 3130 Kelvin, shutter speed of 1/640th second using a 300 mm f/2.8 lens shot wide open. The only automatic feature being used is the auto-focus.

Your D7000 will produce better images since it out performs the Nikon D300 at thigh ISO's

Try Dynamic area focus with 3D tracking.

I use it for fast action.