Irony, Thy Name is Digs

USC pulled off the upset to get the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge started. Next up: The Outrigger Invitational.

USC Athletics

Yesterday, I talked about how digs, as a counting stat, don’t necessarily lead to wins. It did not take long for the volleyball gods to laugh and give me an incredibly ironic box score.

USC pulled off the upset against visiting Penn State in four sets. That is already impressive, but take a look at some of the team stats.

Penn State led in hitting percentage, aces, and blocks. What did USC lead in? That’s right, digs! I love this because a good defense is priceless, even if digs/set isn’t correlated to winning.

In the comments yesterday, digs-to-kills ratio was brought up. So, let’s take a look at the correlation between that and winning.

It turns out, this has the same correlation as digs/set. Digs/set had an R-squared of 0.081 and Kills/Digs had 0.084. Which is to say, they don’t map well to winning. That still doesn’t mean that this metric isn’t important or that digs are worthless. If anything, it shows that winning is complicated and no one stat can capture.

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Match Recaps

Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge

Southern California (19%) def. Penn State (81%)
3-1 (25-22, 25-19, 15-25, 25-23)

Non-conference

UC San Diego (96%) def. Saint Katherine (4%)
3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-14)

McKendree (80%) def. Missouri S&T (20%)
3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-22)

Saint Francis (92%) def. Fort Valley State (8%)
3-1 (25-20, 25-15, 25-27, 25-14)

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Match Projections

Outrigger Invitational

Grand Canyon (55%) vs UC Irvine (45%)

Lewis (9%) vs Hawai'i (91%)

Non-conference

Pepperdine (57%) vs Belmont Abbey (43%)

Erskine (32%) vs Lindenwood (68%)

Emmanuel (50%) vs Fort Valley State (50%)

Mount Vernon Nazarene (3%) vs North Greenville (97%)