The Challenge and Digs

The Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge gets underway and a look at the importance of digs (or lack thereof).

Penn State Athletics

Today we get started with the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge. This would probably make more sense if we weren’t talking about Men’s Volleyball. Neither of these D-I conferences sponsors Men’s Volleyball, but nevertheless, we have a challenge.

So, let’s take a look at the four programs that will be competing this week.

Above are the national rankings for the four teams in the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge. In terms of the polls, UCLA has the advantage. Ohio State and Penn State are close in the polls but Penn State has the advantage 2-0 over the Buckeyes this season. USC is bringing up the rear, but their national ranking is nothing to scoff at.

In terms of hitting, UCLA is in another tier. Their high-powered offense has looked unstoppable at times. From the service line, Ohio State looks incredibly strong. Although USC doesn’t have the same service pressure as the other programs, they have an exceptionally strong blocking game. Interestingly, all of these teams are average or below average in digs per set. I wouldn’t read too much into this though. When I have looked into it in the past, digs don’t correlate well to winning percentage. Here is what it looks like for this season.

The R-squared for this is 0.081. That is…not great. Basically, there is almost no correlation between winning percentage and digs per set. That doesn’t mean that digs aren’t important. It does mean that being in situations where you need more digs doesn’t lead to winning.

For the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge, these teams largely excel at hitting. When you get more kills, you have fewer opportunities for digs. Then you add in aces and blocks and you take away even more opportunities for digs.

Despite using it just now, I actually think that digs per set is not a very usual statistic. It does not isolate the passing prowess of a team and is impacted by too many other areas of the game. Something more along the lines of digs per dig-opportunity would be a better metric. Even better would be some advanced metric to show how much each pass “betters the ball” or increases the team’s chances of getting a point. This would be far more helpful. But alas, I don’t have that type of data.

With this data in mind, what do you think about digs? How much do they matter to top teams? Is the value of a Libero decreasing? What is your ideal dig-related stat?

---

Match Recaps

IVA

Maryville (65%) def. Missouri S&T (35%)
3-2 (20-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-22, 15-13)

MIVA

Lindenwood (83%) def. Quincy (17%)
3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-19)

Non-conference

Penn State (91%) def. CSU Northridge (9%)
3-1 (25-21, 25-21, 17-25, 25-23)

Daemen (91%) def. Thomas More (9%)
3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-18)

Saint Francis (86%) def. Edward Waters (14%)
3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-20)

St. Andrews (41%) def. Benedict (59%)
3-1 (24-26, 25-10, 25-9, 25-16)

---

Match Projections

Non-conference

Saint Katherine (4%) vs UC San Diego (96%)

D'Youville (78%) vs Roberts Wesleyan (22%)

Penn State (81%) vs Southern California (19%)

McKendree (80%) vs Missouri S&T (20%)

Saint Francis (92%) vs Fort Valley State (8%)