It’s Been a Tough Year for PSU Serving
Just watching Penn State’s 2025 matches, it’s clear that the team has had a tough time from the service line. Through 11-17-25 they have 144 aces and 305 errors (but, to be fair, they are tied for 5th in the B1G in aces per set.)
But how does that compare to previous seasons? Is there a statistic that measures how successfully a team has been at “serving aggressive”? One would be calculating the percentage of serves that result in aces, and the percentage that result in service errors — but we don’t have access to the total serves attempted per season.
Methodology
So we’ve elected to go with an alternative: taking the sum of total aces + total errors — the best and worst outcomes for serving — and using that number as the denominator to calculate a percentage of aces, and a percentage of errors out of the total number of serve attempts that result in either an ace or an error.
2025 Season Percentages
For the 2025 season, the 144 aces = 32.1%, and the 305 service errors = 67.9%. You can compare those percentages to other seasons to get a rough idea of how effective those teams were serving for aces and avoiding service errors. Obviously, aggressive serving that leads to service runs isn’t reflected in those two percentages. That’s for another, more in-depth analysis.
2025 Compared to Previous Seasons
So how does the 2025 season compare to previous seasons? For starters, it’s the second lowest aces percentage (remember, that’s aces/(aces+service errors)) since 1997 (surprisingly, the lowest was 2008 — an undefeated National Championship year).
Before jumping to the conclusion that the coaches aren’t doing a good job coaching the servers, note that good teams are generally better at serve receive, and Penn State has played 12 top-20 ranked teams this season.
Also note that over the past 10 seasons, the 2022 team (featuring Allie Holland, Maddy Bilinovic, Gillian Grimes, and Cassie Kuerschen as the top servers, and coached by Katie-Schumacher-Cawley) had the 2nd highest aces percentage (42.1%) — second only to the 2017 team (44.6%) which featured four superb servers — Abby Detering, Bryanna Weiskircher, Kendall White, and Haleigh Washington.
Blocks/Set Not Correlated
We also looked at blocks/set, to see if that statistic was correlated to serving success. The idea was that better blocking teams might not serve quite as aggressively, so they would have higher aces percentages and lower errors percentages, and that conversely, pooer blocking teams might feel the need to put tWe don’t really see any obvious correlation. Although the 2025 team has the lowest blocks/set average (2.05 blocks/set) of any team from 1997 to date — and the average for the next lowest non-Covid season — 2019 — was 2.42 blocks/set (20% higher than 2025) the 2007 team, which had the highest blocks/set average (3.82), had the 5th worst aces percentage (36.5%) for the 1997-2025 period.
More Highly-Skilled Players in College
One trend that was striking to us was how aces percentages have dropped over time. There are 14 seasons from 1997 in which the aces percentage was over 40% — but only 4 of those have been in the past 12 seasons (2014, 2015, 2017 and 2022). Just a guess, but we think this isn’t limited to Penn State, but rather there probably are more quality defensive specialists coming out of high school, and coaches are doing a better coaching them in serve-receive.
A similar trend can be seen in the blocking statistics. Since 1997, 17 Penn State teams have averaged 3.01 or more blocks/set — but of the top 10 averages, all are prior to 2010, with 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017 being the top averages from 2010 on. Obviously, some of this is due to talent disparities. The top three blocking teams all featured exceptional blocking talents: 2027 — Christa Harmotto and Arielle Wilson, 1998 — Emily Stout and Lauren Cacciamani, and 1997 — Terri Zemaitis and Lauren Cacciamani. But even so, the trend suggests that even though there are extraordinary blocking talents now, and there always have been, more athletic and highly skilled attackers are coming up from the high school ranks, and coaches are increasingly making use of back-row attacks to avoid the block.
So take a look. We’re interested in hearing your thoughts on the DigNittany Forum: https://dignittanyvolleyball.com/how-penn-state-serving-in-2025-compares-to-previous-seasons/
| Year | SA | Aces / (Aces + Errors) | SE | Errors / (Aces + Errors) | Total Aces + Errors | Blocks/Set | Wins | Losses | Final Poll |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Stats | 144 | 32.1% | 305 | 67.9% | 449 | 2.05 | 15 | 11 | #24 |
| 2024 Stats | 203 | 38.5% | 324 | 61.5% | 527 | 2.48 | 35 | 02 | #01 |
| 2023 Stats | 141 | 35.8% | 253 | 64.2% | 394 | 2.81 | 23 | 09 | #12 |
| 2022 Stats | 171 | 42.1% | 235 | 57.9% | 406 | 2.69 | 26 | 08 | #11 |
| 2021 Stats | 140 | 34.7% | 264 | 65.3% | 404 | 2.83 | 21 | 11 | #17 |
| 2020 Stats | 96 | 39.8% | 145 | 60.2% | 241 | 2.30 | 10 | 06 | #12 |
| 2019 Stats | 164 | 39.0% | 256 | 61.0% | 420 | 2.42 | 27 | 06 | #07 |
| 2018 Stats | 155 | 39.3% | 239 | 60.7% | 394 | 2.87 | 26 | 08 | #06 |
| 2017 Stats | 169 | 44.6% | 210 | 55.4% | 379 | 3.05 | 33 | 02 | #03 |
| 2016 Stats | 141 | 36.8% | 242 | 63.2% | 383 | 2.62 | 24 | 10 | #10 |
| 2015 Stats | 129 | 41.3% | 183 | 58.7% | 312 | 3.06 | 28 | 06 | #09 |
| 2014 Stats | 243 | 45.5% | 291 | 54.5% | 534 | 2.68 | 36 | 03 | #01 |
| 2013 Stats | 166 | 37.7% | 274 | 62.3% | 440 | 3.05 | 35 | 02 | #01 |
| 2012 Stats | 196 | 38.4% | 314 | 61.6% | 510 | 3.01 | 33 | 03 | #03 |
| 2011 Stats | 209 | 42.1% | 288 | 57.9% | 497 | 2.68 | 25 | 08 | #09 |
| 2010 Stats | 160 | 37.0% | 272 | 63.0% | 432 | 3.01 | 32 | 05 | #01 |
| 2009 Stats | 173 | 41.7% | 242 | 58.3% | 415 | 3.23 | 38 | 00 | #01 |
| 2008 Stats | 156 | 31.6% | 337 | 68.4% | 493 | 3.22 | 38 | 00 | #01 |
| 2007 Stats | 194 | 36.5% | 338 | 63.5% | 532 | 3.82 | 34 | 02 | #01 |
| 2006 Stats | 215 | 39.5% | 329 | 60.5% | 544 | 3.69 | 28 | 03 | #05 |
| 2005 Stats | 151 | 38.2% | 244 | 61.8% | 395 | 3.58 | 31 | 03 | #05 |
| 2004 Stats | 137 | 43.2% | 180 | 56.8% | 317 | 3.03 | 29 | 03 | #07 |
| 2003 Stats | 154 | 41.3% | 219 | 58.7% | 373 | 3.12 | 31 | 05 | #07 |
| 2002 Stats | 209 | 47.1% | 235 | 52.9% | 444 | 3.26 | 25 | 08 | #16 |
| 2001 Stats | 152 | 45.4% | 183 | 54.6% | 335 | 2.87 | 22 | 08 | #17 |
| 2000 Stats | 201 | 47.7% | 220 | 52.3% | 421 | 3.02 | 29 | 06 | #06 |
| 1999 Stats | 176 | 49.3% | 181 | 50.7% | 357 | 3.50 | 36 | 01 | #01 |
| 1998 Stats | 153 | 43.6% | 198 | 56.4% | 351 | 3.75 | 35 | 01 | #02 |
| 1997 Stats | 150 | 42.5% | 203 | 57.5% | 353 | 3.69 | 34 | 02 | #02 |