Subject: Re: MPSF Statistics Date: Thu, 01 May 1997 12:45:27 -0700 From: "David J. Ayers" To: kulasoft@pixi.com (The version below corrects for an error in the serving stuff and shortens the line length so Netscape software doesn't wrap the lines.) * * * Recently, I have analyzed the MPSF statistics available on the web. The following is a summary of the findings. Please note that this study is not terribly rigorous and the numbers do not always tie out due to either rounding, my errors, or problems with the underlying data. For example, the opponents data double counts some of the data from the other teams listed. My thanks to the programs that post statistics on the web. I hope you find it interesting. Most of the data is from: School/Year Games ----------- ----- Stanford 96 82 Stanford 96 Opponents 82 BYU 97 Through 4/15 93 BYU 97 Opponents Through 4/15 93 UCSD -- 97 96 UCSD 97 Opponents 96 UCSB 95 100 UCSB 95 Opponents 100 USC 96 89 USC 96 Opponents 89 Per game amounts include both teams. Serves per game 68 Sideouts per game 45 66.1 % of serves Points per game 23 33.9 % of serves Service Errors per game 8.1 11.8 % of serves Aces per game 2.7 4.0 % of serves Errors per ace 2.94 Note: The points and sideouts per game are from Ravi's study of 13 matches which is posted on his website. The serves per game is based on his numbers plus the errors per game from my study. In layman's terms, 2/3 serves result in a sideout including 2/17 from service errors, 1/3 serves scores a point. 1/25 serves is an ace with a good server generating at least one ace for every 3 errors. Hits per game 79.9 Kills per game 38.6 48.3 % of hits Hitting errors 15.1 19.0 % of hits Blocks 6.7 8.4 % of hits Block Errors 2.3 2.8 % of hits (included in kills) Digs 22.0 27.5 % of hits Note that the kills + errors + blocks + digs = 82.4, more than the number of hits. I do not know the reason why, but can only speculate that some scorekeepers may count digs on free balls which are not counted as hits, etc. Again, the simple approximation: 8 swings per hitter per game (assuming 10 hitters), half are kills, 1/5 are errors, 1/12 are blocked, 1/4 are dug. Composite team Hitting Rating .293 Top three MPSF hitters (based on hitting rating) through 4/15/97 (data from the Collegiate Volleyball Update site): Hitting Error Kill Player, School Games Atpts Kills Errs Rating % % ----------------------- ----- ----- ----- ---- ------ ----- ----- Keenan Whitehurst, Stanford 81 374 224 40 49.2% 10.7% 59.9% Sivan Leoni, Hawai`i 98 438 249 61 42.9% 13.9% 56.8% Szilard Kovacs, USC 85 481 258 66 39.9% 13.7% 53.6% MPSF Top Hitter Totals 264 1293 731 167 43.6% 12.9% 56.5% Note that all three top hitters are middles, they get relatively few swings (~5 per game vs. 8 per game for all hitters) and they make relatively few errors (13 % vs. 19 % for all hitters). David Ayers dayers@mipos2.intel.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Any opinions expressed are solely my own. Not an Intel spokesperson. ---------------------------------------------------------------------