And Then There Were 4 Part 2
Penn State - Creighton and Nebraska - Wisconsin
Yesterday I posted a summary of the Pitt - Kentucky and Louisville - Stanford matchups. Today I’ll review the Penn State - Creighton and Nebraska - Wisconsin matchups.
Webinar Info: This Friday, Dec 20, I’m putting out a NCAA Finals Preview! I’ve done variations of this for the AVCA Convention in previous years and those were always really popular seminars. Since I’m not at the AVCA in-person this year, I figured I would put this out as a webinar. I’m traveling that Friday evening, so what I’ll do is open up a Subscriber chat or an Open Thread for Premium Subscribers to drop comments and questions. I’ll have some pre-recorded stats and analyses and then I’ll do some live Q&A of the questions/comments from subscribers. Get your questions in now!
Penn State - Creighton
This was the only 5-setter of the round-of-8 and kind of an interesting back and forth. A few of the sets, including the 5th, weren’t particularly close, which I think can skew the overall match numbers. But still, it’s worth looking at:
Similar to Louisville, Penn State survived losing the Terminal Serving and First Ball battles by completely dominating the Transition game. Creighton had an excellent serving match. They served in at about 90% with 9 aces and 10 serving errors. They earned an ace or shanked pass on about 1 out of every 6 serves and kept Penn State under 40% Good Pass for the match.
This is also reflected in Creighton earning a margin in First Ball, not just in overall points but in efficiency as well: 0.278 to 0.212. Penn State was just as, if not slightly more (when you account for pass quality), terminal than Creighton, but they made a few more errors, which dragged their First Ball efficiency down. 0.212 is not a First Ball attack efficiency that will typically win you matches at this level of play, nor is a 70% MTP.
Penn State was good enough attacking in Trans with a 0.214 efficiency. It’s not terrible but not great either. But they held Creighton to a negative efficiency with some nice digging, a lot of creates, and a ton of unforced Creighton errors. Creighton had 13 unforced errors in Trans; an amount that is tough to overcome.
One area that Penn State looked good at was digging the long angles. Their defenders are pretty good at being balanced and then ranging one way or the other. Some nice Double Push moves on display including this one by Delaware-native Jocelyn Nathan who played high school ball for my sister.
Representing the mighty Wilmington Friends School Quakers!
Nebraska - Wisconsin
You know this was a big matchup when my barber, not a volleyball person at all, mentioned that he watched this game at a bar over the weekend. “They had it on one of the TVs and honestly, it was better than half the football games.” Well, Wisconsin fans probably weren’t so enthused but still some great volleyball on display.
Both teams passed great: high in-system, low dead ball, good MTP #s, etc… and yet neither team could terminate in First Ball. And interesting to see that Pitt was the only one of the 4 teams who advanced to the Final Four who won the First Ball battle.1 Transition seemed to win the weekend.
And, in a similar vein, it wasn’t that Nebraska’s 0.221 efficiency was eye-popping, and they also had a bunch of digs that didn’t turn into creates. But 9 transition blocks were arguably the big swing factor, so let’s take a look at them.
I don’t necessarily look at this and see one clear system piece or factor… just some good presses and some not-so-great swings in trans by Wisconsin. One block that I really liked was the 2nd block in that montage. Something I like to talk to players about is this idea of Jump From Where You Are (to block the middle). Too many players try to shuffle in front of gap attacks or take extra steps and then they are way late.
If you look at these 4 images of Jackson blocking this gap you’ll see that she just gathers from the center of the court and jumps from where she is and drifts into the seam. She lands back-to-back leading with her right shoulder so she can finish her press square, although her RSB doesn’t.
Nice block and a nice performance by Nebraska in this match.
Check back tomorrow for some matchup analysis previewing the Pitt - Louisville and Penn State - Nebraska matches!
Arguably Louisville did, as they were efficient on fewer opportunities. See that article for more.