B1G Upsets Highlight Weekend's Women's Play

.310 hitting percentage, 13 total team blocks (compared to 8 for the opponent), and a nearly 1-to-1 ratio of service aces to errors (6/8). 

This does not look like the statistics of a losing team in a match, especially when that team is Penn State, playing at home in State College. Yet, if you consult the box score of Saturday's match between No. 15 Illinois* and the No. 5 Nittany Lions, you'll find that Penn State most certainly did lose with the above stats. The Illini hit just a bit better than the Lions, .315 to .310, in pulling the four-game upset (26-24, 16-25, 25-23, 25-22).

The gaudy hitting numbers produced by Penn State in the early weeks of the season made only a cameo appearance vs. Illinois, with PSU putting together a .471 percentage in Game 2; the team's hitting percentage ranged between .250-.289 in the other three games. Frosh middle Haleigh Washington led Penn State with a .538 hitting percentage on 14 kills and 0 errors, on 26 swings.

Illinois's attack sparkled in Games 1 (.500) and 3 (.375). In the clinching Game 4, Illinois somehow managed to prevail with a .214 hitting percentage, compared to .250 for Penn State. According to the play-by-play sheet, the Illini's 25 points in Game 4 came from the following combination: 16 kills, 4 PSU attack errors, 1 PSU setting error, 2 Illinois service aces, and 2 PSU service errors. It took the Illini 42 swings to get those 16 kills in Game 4 (with 7 attack errors mixed in); these numbers suggest Illinois really had to grind out its final-game victory through a lot of long rallies. Junior OH Jocelynn Birks led the visitors, recording 19 kills and only 2 errors on 36 attacks, for a .472 percentage.

Though Penn State has now lost three matches this season, it remains the only major team not to score fewer than 20 points in any single game (excluding fifth games, which are played to 15). As shown above, the Nittany Lions scored 24, 25, 23, and 22 vs. Illinois. In losing at Stanford, PSU scored 25, 23, 22, and 25, before losing the decisive fifth game, 15-10. Finally, in the loss at Nebraska, the Nittany Lions scored 25, 22, 20, and 23 points.

I have checked and verified that each of the following Top 10 teams (some of whom have not lost a match) has at least one sub-20 game. In the interest of time, I list only one example for each team: No. 1 Stanford (25-18 Game-1 loss to Penn State), No. 2 Texas (25-19 Game-2 loss to West Virginia), No. 3 Washington (25-18 Game-1 loss to Cal), No. 4 Florida State (25-18 Game-1 loss to Nebraska), No. 6 Wisconsin (25-16 Game-4 loss to Washington), No. 7 Colorado State (25-18 Game-3 loss to Arizona State), No. 8 Nebraska (25-19 Game-3 loss to Texas), No. 9 Florida (25-16 Game-1 loss to Texas), and No. 10 BYU (25-18 Game-1 loss to Washington).

For No. 8 Nebraska, a problem of late has been closing out potential weekend sweeps. On Friday, October 3, the Cornhuskers opened a two-match homestand with a 3-1 victory over Penn State. The following night, however, Nebraska lost in five to Ohio State, the Huskers blowing a 14-11 lead in the final game.

Fast-forward a week to Friday, October 10. On this night, Nebraska again started the weekend off on a positive note, knocking off Michigan State, 3-1, in East Lansing. However, on the back leg of the trip in Ann Arbor Sunday afternoon, the Huskers could not even take a game against unranked Michigan. To be sure, the Wolverines (8-8 overall, 3-3 in conference) are improving with the return of senior setter Lexi Dannemiller, who missed the first month of the season. Still, a Michigan sweep of Nebraska would have to be considered a big upset, in my book.

The B1G is exhibiting a lot of parity this year. Along with the above examples, Ohio State followed up its win over Nebraska by executing a nearly identical fifth-game comeback against Illinois. I can see 11 of the conference's 14 teams -- Purdue, Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State, Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Northwestern, Indiana, Michigan State, and Michigan -- either being shoo-ins or contenders for the NCAA tournament. Whether Northwestern and Indiana can keep up the pace remains to be seen.

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*National rankings cited in this posting are from the October 6 AVCA poll.