2023 NCAA Women's Preview

Sixth-four teams are alive at the moment, but it sure looks like Nebraska (28-1) and Wisconsin (26-3) will meet for a third time this season to determine the NCAA women's volleyball championship (bracket). Both are No. 1 regional seeds, along with Pitt and Stanford.

Clearly the two dominant teams of the regular season, the Huskers and Badgers split their two B1G matches. Nebraska took an epic five-game tussle from Wisconsin on October 21 in Lincoln. Then, after dropping back-to-back road matches at Penn State and Purdue in mid November, Wisconsin smoked Nebraska on November 24 back in Madison (25-22, 28-26, 25-16); so gloomy was the loss that for the Huskers it really was a Black Friday! In Game 2, the Huskers led 22-19, only to have the Badgers score four straight to lead 23-22. The teams then battled back-and-forth, with UW holding game-points at 24-23 and 27-26, and NU holding them at 25-24 and 26-25.

My Conference-Adjusted Combined Offensive-Defensive (CACOD) metric, which takes a team's own hitting percentage divided by the hitting percentage it has allowed its opponent, multiplied by a conference-difficulty factor, appears below for the 16 nationally seeded teams. In the 12 years the CACOD has been around, no team below 1.91 has ever won the NCAA women's championship. Hence, if precedent holds, only seven teams really have a chance at the title (see column headed by "adjratio").

Oregon looks from its CACOD score to be the most likely non-No. 1 seed to make the Final Four. In addition, the Ducks closed the season winning 10 out of 12, the only two losses coming to Stanford.

I'll close for now with a piece of trivia: Penn State is "the only school to compete in every NCAA Division I Tournament since it started in 1981," a 43-year streak (link).

No. 1 Wisconsin at No. 2 Nebraska in Battle of the Unbeatens

The top teams of the women's college volleyball season thus far, No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 2 Nebraska will meet tonight in Lincoln (B1G Network, 7:00 Central). The teams have identical records of 18-0 overall and 9-0 in conference. Tickets reportedly were going for as much as $250. Below, I'll comment live on the match. 

Nebraska takes Game 1, 25-22... The statistic that jumped out at me was the Huskers' .727 side-out rate (16/22) to .640 (16/25) for the Badgers (live stats).

Wisconsin dominates Game 2, 25-17. Badgers' 12 blocks in Game 2 alone help hold Huskers to -.077 hitting in the game (12 kills and 16 attack errors on 52 swings).

UW leads 15-10 in Game 3... Now 20-12... Badgers take it 25-20.

Wisconsin with early lead in Game 4, but Nebraska pulls off 5-0 run to lead 9-6... Now 14-10 Huskers... NU 17-16. I'll have to check the statistics later, but Nebraska rarely seems to be setting the middle at all... Wisconsin now ahead 18-17, as Huskers hit some balls out of bounds... 20-18 Badgers... 21-18... Calling a time-out NU coach John Cook looks cooked! New life for Nebraska, as it ties the game 21-all, only to have Wisconsin go up 22-21... 23-all... Kill for Badgers, 24-23... Equalizer kill for Huskers... Lift on UW for 25-24 NU lead. Huskers take it 26-24 on a Wisconsin overpass blocked back down.

Game 5: Badgers off to 5-3 lead... Now 6-5 UW... 8-6 Badgers... 10-8 Wisconsin... 11-9 UW... 12-10 Badgers on Husker service error... Even at 12-12... Time-out... 13-12 Huskers. Swings that were not reaching the floor earlier are now doing so for NU. 14-12 Nebraska... Badger kill to stay alive, 14-13... Match well over the three-hour mark... Per TV announcers, NU hitting .524 in Game 5, UW .500... Nebraska air-mails kill-attempt, 14-all... Huskers challenging whether there was a Badger net violation... And video review shows there was, NU wins 15-13...

Badgers outhit (.217-.130) and outblock (18-7) the Huskers, but get the "L." The teams will play a rematch November 24 in Madison and, quite possibly, will meet for a third time in the NCAA title match.

Postscript: The Wisconsin-Nebraska match drew over 600,000 viewers on the Big Ten Network, an amazing number considering that BTN is generally available only in the home regions of B1G schools and as an added purchase by viewers in other areas.  

PREGAME NOTES

The Badgers lead the conference in hitting percentage (for all matches, not just B1G) at .315, with the Huskers in second at .297. The ranks are reversed for opponents' hitting percentage, with NU allowing a microscopic .123 and UW just behind at .143 (conference statistics page).

Nebraska directs most of its sets to outside hitters Merritt Beason (516 attack attempts) and Harper Murray (481 attempts, meaning that the two have nearly taken a combined 1,000 swings on the season. The two have nearly identical hitting percentages on the season, .283 and .285, respectively. In the middle position, Andi Jackson adds a .415 hitting percentage on 224 swings (Husker stats).

For Wisconsin, OH Sarah Franklin carries the hitting load, recording a .292 hitting percentage on 602 swings. Six-foot-nine Anna Smrek patrols the middle, hitting .418 on 316 attempts (Badger stats).

WSJ Analysis of Wisconsin's Five-Game Win at Florida

My overall impression while watching the ESPN telecast of No. 1 Wisconsin's five-game victory at No. 3 Florida was that the Badgers ran the superior offense, as long as their serve-receipt kept the team in system. Michael McCleary of the Wisconsin State Journal really delved nicely into this issue so I am happy to link to his article. On the Gators' end, it looked like their hitters were highly concerned with UW's big blocking game -- not without reason -- and were conservatively trying to tip a lot of balls over the block instead of swinging away. UF hit .180 on the afternoon and no higher than .216 in any one game (box score). Wisconsin hit only .199 for the match but recorded a .406 in Game 3 and a .286 in Game 5. The teams tied in blocks at 8-8.

Live-Blogging NCAA Men's Championship Match (May 2023)

No. 1 seed UCLA (30-2) and No. 2 seed Hawai'i (29-2) will be getting underway shortly (5:00 Eastern) in the NCAA men's championship match. The Rainbow Warriors will be going for their third straight national title. The teams met once during the season on March 12, with Hawai'i taking a 3-1 victory over UCLA in Honolulu.

Game 1 -- Tied 9-9. Ido David powering the Bruins with four kills thus far... Now 10-10... UCLA leads 12-11 with David up to six kills... 14-12 Bruins, David with seven kills... Hawai'i service error takes us to TV timeout with UCLA up 15-13... Hawaii goes on a run and seems to have the upper hand, leading 23-20. However, Bruins come back for 28-26 win... UCLA (.368, 19 kills, 5 errors, 38 attempts) outhits UH (.275, 16-5-40).

Game 2 -- UCLA leads 13-10... Now 15-10... ESPN2 announcers cite Bruins' block as helping them pull away a bit... Very few stuff-blocks for points thus far (Rainbows 2 [1 solo, 2 assists] and Bruins 1 [1 solo]). However, blocking game can slow down opponent through dampening and deflection... Also per ESPN2 announcers, UCLA siding-out better than UH for the match, 72-62%... Now 19-13 Bruins... Three straight for Rainbows, bringing them within 3... Now 19-17, thanks to some tough serving by UH setter Jakob Thelle, but he serves next ball into net... 21-18 UCLA... 22-20 Bruins... Dimitrios Mouchlias (rhymes with nucleus) with a kill to bring Hawai'i within 22-21... Now 23-22 Bruins... David hits long, making it 23-all... Long rally, UH with multiple swings and finally puts one away, 24-23... Tied again at 24-24... Hawai'i goes up 25-24, but serves into net... Mouchlias kill for 26-25... Alex Knight answers for UCLA, 26-all... Bruins airmail serve, 27-26 UH... Merrick McHenry answers for UCLA, 27-all... Guilherme Voss kill for 28-27 UH... UCLA tip to tie it again, 28-28... Mouchlias hits out of bounds, 29-28 Bruins... Rainbows answer, 29-all... David for 30-29... 30-all... UH block for 31-30... UCLA answers, 31-all... UH kill for 32-31... Hawai'i with multiple swings, Mouchlias puts one away for 33-31 win... 

For Game 2, UCLA hits .349 (21-6-43) to .333 (16-4-36) for Hawai'i... Rainbows' Cole Hogland with 2.5 blocks on the night (1 solo, 3 assists)... TV announcers Paul Sunderland and Kevin Barnett calling Game 2 one of the best -- if not the best -- single games in NCAA finals history... I would go with 2015 Loyola vs. Lewis in Game 5 (if for no other reason than that it was the deciding game)...

Game 3 -- Still tight as ever, 10-all... Now 13-11 UCLA... 15-13 Bruins (on kill by David) at the TV timeout... David with 17 kills on the night (9 in Game 1, 4 in Game 2, 4 so far in Game 3)... 18-14 Bruins, T/O Rainbows... UCLA block gives it 20-15 lead... Block by Hogland (with Chaz Galloway) cuts UH deficit to 20-17... Now 21-19 UCLA... Now 23-19... 24-20, game-point Bruins... UH saves one, but David with a kill to win it 25-21... 

David hitting .371 (20-7-35) through three games... J. R. Norris (.889, 8-0-9), Knight (.385, 11-1-26), and McHenry (.385, 8-3-13) also getting it done for the Bruins... Voss (.625, 6-1-8), Hogland (.667, 6-0-9), Mouchlias (.333, 15-3-36), and Galloway (.333, 8-2-18) pacing Hawai'i.

Game 4 -- UCLA leading 7-5 Tied at 6-6 (call reversal)... 8-7 Rainbows... Good Knight! Big block ties it for UCLA... Norris with back-to-back aces to make it 10-8 Bruins... Now 15-11 UCLA... 15-13... 16-13 Bruins... 16-15 UCLA (pending review of whether spike was in or out)... 17-14 UCLA... 18-14 Bruins, as UH blocker touches antenna with his hand -- in 50 years of watching volleyball, I've never seen that particular violation be committed!  19-14 on another David kill... UH within 19-16... 21-16 UCLA, as Norris records fourth ace... 23-18 Bruins, as program's 20th NCAA title looking highly likely... Now 23-20... Hawai'i serves into net, 24-20, four match points for UCLA... UH saves one... Bruins take next point for championship (25-21) but Hawai'i challenges... Challenge rejected, UCLA wins its first NCAA title since 2006, the 20th in program history...

Final box score.

Chad Gordon Analyses NCAA Men's Tourney Teams' Attacking Efficiency

Over at Off the Block, Chad Gordon has every attacking stat you could want for each of the seven teams in the NCAA men's tournament (UCLA, Hawai'i, Grand Canyon, Long Beach State, Penn State, Ohio State, and King University of Bristol, Tennessee). For each team, Gordon examines:

• The team's overall hitting percentage (or efficiency) and hitting percentage for each player with more than 100 hitting attempts on the season.
• How these hitting percentages compare to what would be expected based on situational factors (e.g., the quality of serve-receipt before the ball is set to the hitter, whether the team is attacking after a free-ball). 
• Hitting percentage and hitting percentage over expected for in-system and out-of-system attacks.

Even though some of the statistical formulations are complex, Gordon offers practical, straightforward conclusions, such as that UCLA's Ido David is "hitting almost 200 points above expectation in-system ... and can be counted on for a quick sideout." Or that, "While [the Hawai'i] middle duo of [Guilherme] Voss and [Cole] Hogland are ridiculously efficient on their limited attempts, it’s the three pin hitters whose consistent play throughout the chaos really shines. Of the three, [Dimitrios] Mouchlias shines the brightest, hitting +.234 over expectation on out of system attempts."