With Washington and Penn State only having one common opponent to date — the Wisconsin Badgers, which lost to the Huskies 3-2 in Seattle on September 19, 2014 and lost to Penn State 3-0 in Madison on September 24, 2014 — we thought we’d take a look at how the two teams fared against the Badgers, and how the Badgers fared against each of the other two teams. We were going to do this comparison for Attack Stats and Blocking, but honestly, our slacker staff rebelled and said “No way.” That’s the printable version. So it’s just Attack Stats — which still ends up being a really, really big table.
A couple of points to note: First, the Wisconsin-Washington match went to five sets, so the total kills and kills/set aren’t one-to-one comparable to the Wisconsin-Penn State match. Second, the Wisconsin-Washington match ended at around midnight, Badger time, on the Huskies home court, and one night after the Badgers had played a high-profile match against USC, whereas the Wisconsin-Penn State match was played in Madison, at a very civilized 7:30 p.m. Badger time. Whether any of these factors play into the comparative statistics, who knows, but we think they’re worth noting.
The stat that really jumps out? Penn State outhit Wisconsin by .288 to .148 (a .140 differential in favor of the Nittany Lions), whereas Washington outhit the Badgers by .253 to .178 (a ..075 differential in favor of the Huskies). That’s not to say Penn State would have a hitting differential over Washington of .073 — the stats just don’t work that way — but for us it does suggest that overall, Penn State played better against the Badgers than the Huskies did (another statistic that suggests that is Penn State swept Wisconsin, whereas the Badgers took Washington to five sets).
Take a look:
Lions & Huskies vs. Badgers: Attack Stats
| Team | Player | SP | K | K/S | E | TA | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penn State  | PSU Team | 3 | 53 | 17.67 | 12 | 125 | .288 |
 | Huskies Team | 5 | 56 | 11.20 | 15 | 162 | .253 |
Wisc. | Badgers vs. Huskies | 5 | 69 | 13.80 | 36 | 185 | .178 |
| Wisc. | Badgers vs. PSU | 3 | 35 | 11.67 | 17 | 122 | .148 |
| Penn State | Hancock, Micha | 3 | 9 | 3.00 | 0 | 12 | .750 |
| Wade, Melanie | 5 | 8 | 1.60 | 0 | 14 | .571 |
| Sybeldon, Lianna | 5 | 11 | 2.20 | 1 | 22 | .455 |
| Wisc. | Thomas, Courtney vs. Huskies | 5 | 18 | 3.60 | 5 | 32 | .406 |
| Penn State | Whitney, Aiyana | 3 | 8 | 2.67 | 2 | 17 | .353 |
| Wisc. | Thompson, Dominique vs. PSU | 3 | 6 | 2.00 | 1 | 15 | .333 |
| Wisc. | Thompson, Dominique vs. Huskies | 5 | 12 | 2.40 | 5 | 22 | .318 |
| Wisc. | Chapman, Ellen vs. PSU | 3 | 13 | 4.33 | 1 | 42 | .286 |
| Penn State | Lee, Simone | 3 | 12 | 4.00 | 3 | 34 | .265 |
| Scambray, Tia | 5 | 9 | 3 | 25 | .240 | |
| Penn State | Frantti, Ali | 3 | 9 | 3.00 | 4 | 21 | .238 |
| Nelson, Kaleigh | 5 | 11 | 2.20 | 4 | 33 | .212 |
| Wisc. | Nelson, Haleigh vs. Huskies | 5 | 8 | 1.60 | 4 | 21 | .190 |
| Penn State | Grant, Nia | 3 | 7 | 2.33 | 4 | 16 | .188 |
| Vansant, Krista | 5 | 17 | 7 | 54 | .185 | |
| Wisc. | Nelson, Haleigh vs. PSU | 3 | 6 | 3 | 17 | .176 | |
| Penn State | Courtney, Megan | 3 | 8 | 2.67 | 4 | 25 | .160 |
| Wisc. | Chapman, Ellen vs. Huskies | 5 | 14 | 6 | 52 | .154 | |
| Wisc. | Carlini, Lauren vs. Huskies | 5 | 2 | 0.40 | 1 | 12 | .083 |
Wisc. | Bates, Kelly vs. PSU | 3 | 9 | 3.00 | 7 | 26 | .077 |
| Wisc. | Bates, Kelly vs. Huskies | 5 | 14 | 2.80 | 13 | 43 | .023 |
| Wisc. | Carlini, Lauren vs. PSU | 3 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 3 | 0.00 |
| Schwann, Courtney | 3 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 7 | 0.00 |
| Jones, Chrissy | 3 | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 6 | 0.00 |
| Wisc. | Thomas, Courtney vs. PSU | 3 | 1 | 0.33 | 4 | 18 | -.167 |
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Photo Credits
- Micha Hancock: courtesy of GoPSUsports.com