Nike Big Four Tournament in Austin

Four of the nation's top collegiate women's volleyball teams gathered in Austin, Texas this past weekend and it was the host University of Texas Longhorns compiling the best record of the teams, 2-0. All of the match-ups were prearranged, rather than a format of semi-finals and finals being used. UT's wins were both close: 25-27, 25-17, 13-25, 25-21, 15-10 over Penn State, and 29-27, 18-25, 25-16, 27-25 over Stanford. Box scores of the four matches are available at the following links: Texas-Penn State, Texas-Stanford, Florida-Stanford, and Florida-Penn State.

My initial interest was in looking at which players hit at a consistently high level over their teams' two matches. I created the following chart (on which you can click to enlarge), focusing on players who took 20 or more hitting attempts in a match. Highlighted in blue are players who hit (roughly) .300 or better in both of their matches.

Four middle-blockers hit well in both of their matches: Penn State's Katie Slay, Florida's Chloe Mann, and Stanford's Inky Ajanaku and Carly Wopat. Cardinal outside-hitter Brittany Howard recorded attack percentages of .290 and .300 against Florida and Texas, respectively.

Oddly, the team that compiled the best record, Texas, had no players who hit for a high percentage in both matches, and the team with the worst record, Stanford, had three such players. I therefore decided to probe Stanford's matches a little more closely, as shown in the next chart.

Stanford was outplayed by Florida across the statistical indicators examined, although not by a lot. The Gators' winning score of 28-26, 25-17, 18-25, 25-22 thus seems consistent with how the teams played. The Texas-Stanford match was a different story. Stanford statistically outperformed UT in three categories -- hitting, blocking, and digging -- yet still lost in four. The "Cardinal sin" occurred in the serving game. Stanford botched 16 serves against Texas, while scoring only three aces. The Longhorns, in contrast, had much more balanced numbers of aces (9) and errors (11).

Texas also benefited from errant opposition serving vs. Penn State, as the Nittany Lions amassed 22 service errors (with six aces). It may be a case where the Longhorns' reputation precedes them; out of respect or fear of the UT offensive attack, opposing teams may feel it necessary to serve extremely aggressively.