2/23/25
Where does your favorite D3 Men’s Volleyball team points come from? We asked the question and will now provide the analysis and the answer. We took a look at the top 50 teams in the InsideHitter.com rankings and took a deeper dive into point generation. We examined on a percentage basis where each team’s points are generated. Are they from kills, blocks, aces, or opponent errors? Here are some observations:
Let’s take a look at top ranked Southern Virginia. SVU has the highest percentage of points coming from aces in the top 50. Fourteen percent of their total points come from the service line. Unfortunately for the Knights, their aggressive posture also generates one of the highest percentages of service errors to total opponent points. 34% of SVU’s opponent’s points come from the Knight’s service errors at a rate of 5/set. This is also a team that has a hitting percentage of .438, by far the highest in the country and well ahead of #2 NYU’s team hitting percentage of .377. SVU also leads the country with just 2.77 attack errors per set. That is a remarkable number and indicative of a team dominating their opponents and who have not lost a set all season.
SVU dominates opponent and takes control of their own destiny. Only 26% of their points come from opponent’s errors. Mostly because the Knight’s overwhelming offense, blocks, and serving does not give them chances to make mistakes. Steven’s on the other hand applies pressure in a way that forces mistakes from opponents. 41% of their points come from forcing errors. Two different styles but both incredibly effective.
UC Santa Cruz has one of the most effective attacks. They garner 59% of their points from kills. Benedictine, Cal Lutheran, and Vassar have the highest percentage of blocks in relation to total points generated with Benedictine getting 12% of their offense from blocking points, The Kingsmen and the Brewers generate 10% of their points from the block.
Like SVU, Springfield gets a super high percentage of offensive points from their serve. They come in at 13%. Surprisingly. Stevens only generates 4% of their total points from the service line. It’s an interesting analysis and we would love to hear what you think… comment on this post or send comments to insidehitter@gmail.com.
We took a similar approach to opponents scoring to see what percent of each team’s opponents were driven by service and attack errors. Here are some observations:
It’s no surprise that the highest ranked teams have the highest hitting percentage. If you look at the past number of years statistics, this has been the clearest indicator of success. There are 8 teams with a hitting percentage exceeding .300. They are all in the top 10 and the other 2 teams are at .294 and .287.
A high service error per set can indicate two things. Your team is being super aggressive and going all out to ace, thus having a high percentage of misses. Or your team just does not serve well. The top 5 teams in our ranking all have very high SE/set scores. You could make the same argument for attack errors but as a percentage and on a per set basis, the best teams have low AE/set and low % of AE as a percentage of opponent points. Southern Virginia is the only team in the nation with an attack error per set under 3. Teams like Nazareth, Rutgers, and Baldwin Wallace are their own worst enemies in this category and have great opportunity to improve over the remainder of the season. Benedictine has the lowest percentage of service errors contributing to opponents’ points.
What conclusions are you drawing from the data? Feel free to comment.