Another big day in January is in the books. VBelo had a lot of lop-sided matchups, but the two ranked matchups were exactly what we hoped for: 5-set thrillers. Ohio State may have out-hit Grand Canyon, but it was their 34 service errors that really held them back. Not to mention Ohio State hitting -.143 in the decisive set. The other 5-set match was between Stanford and UCSB. Again, the winning team was out-hit, but had fewer service errors. Stanford looked to Will Rottman (22 kills) and he did not disappoint. Interestingly, the MPSF team was the winner in both of these 5-set matches. The MPSF is now 22-1 to start the season!
I plan to look into some of the data more, but I wanted draw some attention to the home court advantage this season. So far there have been 61 matches played on non-neutral courts (true home courts). Of those 61 matches, 49 (80%) have been won by the home team. The early season often sees some uneven matchups, so this number will likely come down over the course of the season. In 2022, the home team won 63% of matches, which was higher than the two previous seasons. To start this season, home teams seem to be playing at an incredible pace, but we would need to look into the matchups a little closer to see where teams are truly over-performing or just playing as expected.
After a jam packed start of the weekend, we get a little breather today with only 2 matches. Charleston will look to start the season 2-0 for the first time since 2018. Their opponent, D’Youville, will also be looking for their second straight win following a 3-0 sweep of Belmont Abbey yesterday.1 The other match will see Ohio State and George Mason square up in a potentially close match. Ohio will want to clean up its serving errors and GMU will be looking for their first win of the season.
Match Recaps
Non-conference
Grand Canyon (58%) def. Ohio State (42%) 3-2 (23-25, 25-18, 25-23, 18-25, 15-10)
This five set match only featured 5 total lead changes, 4 of which were in set 4. The big stat was the 34 service errors for Ohio State. There were 5 Buckeyes with at least 6 SE in the match.
Lewis (74%) def. UC San Diego (26%) 3-1 (27-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-23)
Max Roquet (Lewis) had a solid double-double with 19 kills and 10 digs. Lewis had two players with double digit digs (also Jason Gibbs).
A previous version incorrectly stated that D’Youville lost yesterday. My apologies to the Saints of D’Youville and thank you to everyone who caught this.
