NCAA | Washington among national elite in blocks, hits, serves

#2 Washington continues to climb in national stats rankings

NCAA | Washington among national statistics leaders

Huskies tied for tops in winning percentage; 4th in hitting; 11th in blocking

The NCAA’s first national D1 volleyball statistics summary of the 2012 season is now out, and Washington is among the very best in three categories. The Huskies are the only school ranked among the top 11 in winning percentage, team hitting percentage and team blocking percentage.

Washington's Kaleigh Nelson (6) is among the nation's hitting percentage leaders
-Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann

Huskies, Bruins & Trojans atop conference & national stats

After last weekend’s scramble—in both the Pac-12 and nationally—the Washington Huskies have a chance to gain ground on the conference leaders.

UCLA and USC each have two losses; Washington, Cal and Stanford each have four. If the Huskies can manage a sweep, they’ll inch ever closer to the top of the nation’s toughest conference.

All five schools are nationally ranked in the top 10: #1 UCLA, #3 Stanford, #4 USC, #7 Cal & #10 Washington. Naturally, those schools also dominate the conference team and individual stats.

Washington leads in three team categories: Opponent Hitting Percentage, Blocks and Service Aces. USC is tops in Hitting Percentage and Kills. Overall, the top four in every team category includes the Huskies, Bruins and/or Trojans:

Nationally (318 Division 1 teams), Washington is first in blocks/set and 17^th in aces/set. USC is 5^th and UCLA 13^th in assists/set. The Trojans are 4^th and the Bruins are 17^th in kills/set. USC is 7^th in hitting percentage. For some reason, the NCAA doesn’t report opponent hitting percentage, but Washington is undoubtedly in the top ten, if not the national leader. It certainly leads all other ranked teams:

UW: Still no five-set matches

As we reported two weeks ago ("Washington's five-set curse",) matches which go the full five sets (with one team, of course, winning 3 sets to 2), have not been the Washington Huskies' friend.

During Coach Jim McLaughlin's ten-plus seasons at UW, his teams have won 85% percent of matches lasting either 3 or 4 sets. But when they play 5, they win just 47% (23 of 49) of the time.

When Washington beat Utah Saturday, it was the first time in McLaughlin's coaching career that his team had started the season without playing a single 5-set match in the first 16 matches. The previous streak was 15 in 2009, when the undefeated Huskies lost 2-3 to Stanford in Palo Alto (more on that later this week.)

The Huskies' 3-1 win at Long Beach State was the only 4-set match of 2011 so far. The other 14 Washington victories have been 3-0 sweeps; the only loss was an 0-3 sweep at the hands of USC.

Given that UW has lost seven of its past ten 5-setters, the new record streak is probably good news.

Washington setter Evan Sanders
[Volleyblog Seattle photo by Leslie Hamann]

"I don't know," says McLaughlin. "I'm not sure about the significance. I've never thought about it."

"Now you're going to make me think about it."

UW VOLLEYBALL Number of matches to start the season without a 5-set match
2011	*16
2009	15
2002	13
2010	13
2005	12
2007	11
2003	10
2004	9
2008	7
2006	1
2001	1
*active streak

Washington's impressive stats: do they matter?

Five of the nation's top six teams this week are members of the Pac-12 … and a sixth—#15 Oregon—is the only Pac-12 team without a conference loss. There can be little argument which league is the nation's best.

It bears noting, then, that Washington leads the Pac-12 in three crucial statistical categories: Best offensive hitting percentage (.303); lowest opponent hitting percentage (.115), and most service aces per set (2.06). UW is second in the league in most blocks per set (3.04). The aces per set is tops in the entire nation (320 Division 1 schools); the offensive hitting percentage is second best (trailing only Michigan State), and the blocking stat is sixth in the nation. The NCAA does not report lowest opponent hitting percentage.

So, are these numbers important? And what do they mean?

Huskies high in national stat rankings

The University of Washington doesn’t have a single starting server this season employing a booming jump serve (think Jill Collymore in 2009 or Kindra Carlson in 2010). Every time one of the Huskies steps to the service line, opponents can expect a jump float, usually a flat knuckleball to the deep corners. Washington’s three outside hitters—Summer Ross, Kylin Muñoz and Krista Vansant—lead the team in aces.

It must be working. Washington has the highest aces per set average of any Division 1 team in the nation. UW has dialed up 65 aces in 31 sets, a 2.1 ace/set average. No other Pac-12 team ranks in the top fifty nationally.

The Huskies can also hit and block. The team is hitting .308, good for fourth nationally (trailing only Michigan State, Hawai’i and Cal.) Washington also averages 2.95 blocks per set, the ninth-best number in the country.

The NCAA doesn’t report rankings for opponents’ hitting percentage, but the Pac-12 website lists Washington second only to Cal. The Huskies hold opponents to a meager .123.

Washington's Kelly Holford serves during a scrimmage
[Volleyblog Seattle video screen shot by Leslie Hamann]