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2023-2024 HuskerGeek Ratings Leaders

Sport School Rating
ViPR D1 Volleyball Wisconsin 1,711.3731

Author: HuskerGeek

ViPR Stat Lines of Week 2

Written By: HuskerGeek

The second week of volleyball season is in the books and this is who lit up the ViPR Win Probability Added sheet.

All-Around Division 1

Heather Hook of UNI takes the crown for the highest base score for WPA.  She scored an impressive 2.2865 in UNI’s four set victory over USC.  Getting the job done all over the court with 50 assists, 8 kills on 16 swings, 10 digs, 4 block assists and a service ace.  I suspect a partridge in a pear tree may have been watching that performance.  It was a performance which also takes the award for the highest accumulated score per set.

Southern California vs. UNI (2017-09-01)

Top Performances

Heather Hook

UNI


Game WPA

2.2891

Offense: 1.5968

Defense: 0.6923

Attacking: 0.7468
Setting:0.7799
Serving:0.0701
Blocking:0.2454
Digging:0.4469

Karlie Taylor

UNI


Game WPA

1.4982

Offense: 0.9312

Defense: 0.5670

Attacking: 1.0424
Setting:0.0000
Serving:-0.1112
Blocking:0.0307
Digging:0.5363

Khalia Lanier

Southern California


Game WPA

1.3308

Offense: 1.0032

Defense: 0.3277

Attacking: 0.9608
Setting:0.0119
Serving:0.0305
Blocking:-0.0869
Digging:0.4146
Source: 108765

Specialists of Division 1

The highest per set attack score was produced by Green Bay’s Lydia DeWeese.  Scoring eighteen true kills on thirty-one attempts with only two hitting errors in a competitive three set loss to Butler.  All three sets were won with two point margins and the third set scored 56 total points.

Butler vs. Green Bay (2017-09-02)

Top Performances

Lydia DeWeese

Green Bay


Game WPA

1.6394

Offense: 1.5634

Defense: 0.0760

Attacking: 1.5634
Setting:0.0000
Serving:0.0000
Blocking:0.0760
Digging:0.0000

Brooke Gregory

Butler


Game WPA

1.3003

Offense: 0.5983

Defense: 0.7020

Attacking: 0.6048
Setting:0.0000
Serving:-0.0065
Blocking:0.2662
Digging:0.4358

Makayla Ferguson

Butler


Game WPA

1.0560

Offense: 0.7703

Defense: 0.2857

Attacking: 0.1878
Setting:0.3963
Serving:0.1862
Blocking:0.1791
Digging:0.1065
Source: 108987

Minnesota’s own Samantha Seliger Swenson takes home the award for the highest setter score.  Samantha captured the award by slightly more than a thousandth per set, just edging Duquesne’s Dani Suiter.  A comfortable three set sweep of Tennessee provided the stat line for Gopher setter.

Game Not Available

Swenson accumulated forty-nine assists in three sets during a performance game that saw Minnesota hit 0.396.  More than a solid day at the office, but Swenson also added three kills, two blocks, and seven digs.

We come to the most fickle of skills the block.  The domain of those later described as having a sense of the moment, or a penchant for delivering in the clutch.  Lauren Frilling of Xavier takes home the prize this week.   Her eight block performance scored 0.4963 on the stat sheet.  Two solo blocks and four block assists in a four set loss to Miami of Ohio.

Miami (OH) vs. Xavier (2017-08-29)

Top Performances

Kristen Massa

Xavier


Game WPA

1.7186

Offense: 0.8735

Defense: 0.8451

Attacking: 0.6347
Setting:0.0000
Serving:0.2388
Blocking:0.0000
Digging:0.8451

Maeve McDonald

Miami (OH)


Game WPA

1.2996

Offense: 0.1164

Defense: 1.1832

Attacking: 0.0000
Setting:0.1159
Serving:0.0005
Blocking:0.0000
Digging:1.1832

Stela Kukoc

Miami (OH)


Game WPA

1.2457

Offense: 0.6643

Defense: 0.5814

Attacking: 0.8725
Setting:0.0000
Serving:-0.2082
Blocking:0.1511
Digging:0.4303
Source: 108451

Aces and service points rule the serving score and Ivana Blazevic of Maryland Eastern Shore certainly acquired plenty of both.  During Eastern Shore’s three set sweep of St. Francis Brooklyn, Blazevic served twenty-seven times and her team scored on twenty-two of them.  Eight times the ball went over and did not come back.  Ivana added thirty-six assists to her serving exhibition.

Game Not Available

Emily Lopes of CSU Bakersfield accumulated thirty-two digs in a four set match against Valparaiso.  Averaging eight digs per set and doubling the total of the next person on the team placed Emily as the top performer in the Roadrunners victory.

CSU Bakersfield vs. Valparaiso (2017-09-01)

Top Performances

Emily Lopes

CSU Bakersfield


Game WPA

1.4904

Offense: 0.0840

Defense: 1.4064

Attacking: 0.0000
Setting:0.0973
Serving:-0.0134
Blocking:0.0000
Digging:1.4064

Haylee Roberts

CSU Bakersfield


Game WPA

1.4224

Offense: 1.2411

Defense: 0.1813

Attacking: 1.2583
Setting:0.0172
Serving:-0.0343
Blocking:0.0923
Digging:0.0890

Brittany Anderson

Valparaiso


Game WPA

1.3023

Offense: 0.8639

Defense: 0.4384

Attacking: 0.0998
Setting:0.6613
Serving:0.1028
Blocking:0.0581
Digging:0.3802
Source: 108539

That’s it for the week’s Top Performances.  Congratulations to all of the standouts.

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Husker Volleyball: First Weekend Roundup

Written By: HuskerGeek

The opening weekend proved very difficult for the Husker Volleyball team.  Opening the season with two losses to Oregon and Florida won’t penalize the Huskers too much by the time the tournament comes, but if they want a premier win before conference play begins on September 22nd, it leaves few options.  A two game set against Pac-12 UCLA on September 8th and 9th will be the only other opportunities to get a statement win over a traditional power.  September 15th against a quality Kansas State team also remains before Nebraska opens conference play at Penn State.

Nebraska’s performance to start the season was not wholly unexpected.  Losing four starters to graduation including three former All-Americans was always going to be hard to replace, but the added difficulty of Kelly Hunter being unavailable due to injury added another key loss to the current roster.  Florida and Oregon came in with veteran rosters and the challenge proved a bit too much for Huskers this weekend.  However, Nebraska showed flashes of the team they could be this year.  It will take time and there are a number of things that the Huskers will need to clean up before tournament time, but that’s what the season is for.

Oregon vs. Nebraska (2017-08-25)

Top Performances

Brooke Sickle

Oregon


Game WPA

1.7413

Offense: 0.8589

Defense: 0.8824

Attacking: 0.6648
Setting:0.0358
Serving:0.1583
Blocking:0.0000
Digging:0.8824

Mikaela Foecke

Nebraska


Game WPA

1.2891

Offense: 0.5734

Defense: 0.7156

Attacking: 0.6494
Setting:0.0000
Serving:-0.0759
Blocking:0.0000
Digging:0.7156

Annika Albrecht

Nebraska


Game WPA

1.0572

Offense: 0.2445

Defense: 0.8127

Attacking: 0.2206
Setting:-0.0191
Serving:0.0431
Blocking:0.1183
Digging:0.6944
Source: 108306

Nebraska started off the year against a veteran squad that has been reinforced with new talent.  The game showcased many of Nebraska’s expected weaknesses coming into the season.  Serve receive and passing were both quite shaky at times.  Hunter Atherton filling in for the injured Kelly Hunter struggled to connect with several of her hitters, and Nebraska’s radio team of John Baylor and Lauren Cook commented believing that her sets to Briana Holman were a bit too low.  That, in particular, is not surprising when you consider that last year John Cook commented on Kelly Hunter having a similar issue connecting with Holman.  Holman, despite standing only six foot one, is an extremely good jumper and this has resulted in her setting being somewhat in consistent during her Nebraska tenure.  Annika Albrecht, listed at six foot even, also struggled to terminate from her outside spot.  Totaling nine kills, two of which came by way of block error, and seven hitting errors on thirty-nine swings is certainly not the day she was looking for.

There were also many positives in the game which, despite being a three sets to one loss, will be highlighted going forward.  Albrecht despite having a rough day offensively showed her prowess as a back row defender.  Sixteen digs and a nary an error in serve receive is a day that I believe the Huskers will take moving forward.  Kenzie Maloney despite several miscues also had a solid day starting her first game of the season in the Libero spot.  Replacing the departed Justine Wong-Orantes was never going to be an easy task, but Maloney has been a solid back row player for Nebraska the past two years including several starts wearing the off color jersey.  It certainly wasn’t the day she hoped for, but it was no disaster either.  Offensively, Jazz Sweet made her college debut in strong fashion terminating on fourteen of thirty-two swings while committing only two errors.  That totaled an Attack WPA of 0.5093 which ranked second on the team.  Michaela Foecke despite a slow start ended up acquiring thirteen kills on forty-nine swings while committing three errors.  Totaling an Attack WPA of 0.6492 showed Hunter Atherton’s penchant for sending the ball Foecke’s way on high leverage points and Foecke’s own penchant for putting the ball down when it really counts.

Nebraska vs. Florida (2017-08-26)

Team Set 1 Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Sets
Nebraska25182518112
Florida19251725153

Top Performances

Mikaela Foecke

Nebraska


Game WPA

0.9757

Offense: 0.5858

Defense: 0.3899

Attacking: 0.4462
Setting:0.0000
Serving:0.1396
Blocking:0.0294
Digging:0.3606

Rachael Kramer

Florida


Game WPA

0.8242

Offense: 0.7628

Defense: 0.0614

Attacking: 0.7628
Setting:0.0000
Serving:0.0000
Blocking:0.0400
Digging:0.0213

Allie Monserez

Florida


Game WPA

0.6656

Offense: 0.2110

Defense: 0.4546

Attacking: 0.0188
Setting:0.2526
Serving:-0.0604
Blocking:0.0278
Digging:0.4268
Source: 108378

The second game of the year came against a Florida squad who knocked off the de facto favorite for the National Championship in Texas.  A squad that was also playing in front of a larger-than-normal home crowd.  Florida comes into the season with a senior laden squad that is as experienced as they are talented. Rhamat Alhassan might, as the announcers continuously pointed out, be the best combination of height and leaping ability in the college game right now.  However, in this five set match which featured a continuous line of blowout sets, Six foot eight inch Rachel Kramer stole the show.  Acquiring twenty kills on only twenty-eight swings with only a single shot hitting the opposing block.  Kramer was simply unstoppable for a large portion of the match and hitting an astronomic 0.679 totaled for a game best Attack WPA of 0.7650.  An impressive total considering the dearth of high leverage points being played in a five set match.  Every set played was a blowout in volleyball terms.  Large gaps between the team scores happened early and often.  Comebacks were not to be found.

Nebraska despite losing their second game of the weekend had a more solid day all the way around.  The Husker starters were led offensively by Michaela Foecke.  The junior managed eighteen kills on fifty-nine swings with six errors.  Four of her errors came by way of opposition block.  An imposing block from Florida caused a number of problems for the Husker hitters.  Foecke’s performance, however, earned her the top WPA score for the game at 0.9808.  An unusually low score for a five set match where players often come near or beyond the 2.0 mark, but as stated before, this was not a normal five set match.

Beyond Foecke, Jazz Sweet impressed a second time with a sixteen kill performance on thirty-one swings with six errors.  Three of those errors hit the Florida block.  Defensively despite several impressive serving runs by Florida’s Carli Snyder, none of the Huskers’ back row players recorded a reception error and five different players recorded sixteen digs.  Kenzie Maloney led the way with eighteen digs and had a better more consistent day than she did against Oregon.  It did appear that there was a lack of communication on the court as other Husker players stepped in front of Maloney on several occasions and collided with her at least once.  Better communication might be one of the key needs and notes from the weekend. After Maloney, four Huskers tied at sixteen digs.  Albrecht, Foecke, Atherton and DS Sydney Townsend created a log jam for second on the team in digs.  Front row defense showed up as well as Briana Holman and Lauren Stivrins combined for 7 block assists.  Foecke added four block assists herself.

Many of the issues from the Oregon match remained during the match against Florida.  Albrecht again struggled to terminate facing a large Florida front line as did the Nebraska middles.  The Husker passing while better was still inconsistent.  These issues and others will need to be improved if Nebraska wants to make noise in the Big Ten this year.

Looking to the future, Nebraska will have games against UMBC, Oral Roberts, and Saint Mary’s when it returns to play next weekend in the Ameritas Players Challenge. Nebraska will be heavy favorites in each match giving them ample opportunity to work out some of their issues before UCLA comes to Devaney the weekend after.

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