Stanford takes on Penn State in Nike Big Four Opener

When: Friday, August 31, 2012 8:00 p.m. ET

Where: Rec Hall 

Media: BTN and BTN2Go – Live; GameTracker 

Team Snapshots

                                              (Photo courtesy of Nicolás García)

Stanford

2012 Record

2-1 (sweeps of Saint Mary’s and Albany, 3-1 loss to Hawaii.)

About the Coach

Head Coach John Dunning is 311-57 (.845) in 11 seasons at Stanford.

Preseason Polls

#9 in 8/27 AVCA poll; #2 Pac-12 preseason coaches’ poll

Penn State 

2012 Record

3-0 (wins over Morehead State, Western Kentucky, and Louisville)

About the Coach

Head Coach Russ Rose is 1058-172 in 33 seasons at Penn State; 5 NCAA Championship teams (4 consecutively from 2007 through 2010).

Polls

#4 in 8/27/12 AVCA poll; #2 in B1G preseason coaches’ poll

Stat Joust

Penn State Stats

Attack Leaders - 2012

#	Name	Cl	SP	MP	MS	K	K/S	AE	TA	Hit %
1	Scott, Ariel	Jr.	125	36	35	469	3.75	127	1110	.308
18	McClendon, Deja	Jr.	124	36	36	403	3.25	131	1106	.246
16	Slay, Katie	Jr.	122	35	27	279	2.29	58	537	.412
17	Courtney, Megan	Fr.	120	36	35	240	2.00	88	632	.241
7	Grant, Nia	So.	124	36	36	205	1.65	52	407	.376
12	Hancock, Micha	So.	125	36	36	125	1.00	32	260	.358
6	Martin, Maddie	Jr.	62	30	1	51	0.82	21	129	.233
	Team	n/a	125	36	36	1788	14.30	514	4222	.302
	Opponents	n/a	125	36	36	1346	10.77	800	4242	.129

Set/Serve Leaders - 2012

#	Name	Cl	SP	MP	MS	Ast	Ast /S	SA	SA /S	SE
12	Hancock, Micha	So.	125	36	36	1403	11.22	81	0.65	113
4	Gonzalez, Dominique	So.	125	36	0	96	0.77	26	0.21	34
18	McClendon, Deja	Jr.	124	36	36	42	0.34	18	0.15	38
17	Courtney, Megan	Fr.	120	36	35	33	0.28	13	0.11	31
33	Fuller, Lacey	So.	119	36	1	15	0.13	19	0.16	18
5	Carpenter, Kristin	Sr.	95	36	6	12	0.13	8	0.08	24
6	Martin, Maddie	Jr.	62	30	1	3	0.05	14	0.23	29
3	Pierce, Kendall	Fr.	29	18	1	2	0.07	9	0.31	6
n/a	Team	n/a	125	36	36	1635	13.08	196	1.57	314
n/a	Opponents	n/a	125	36	36	1286	10.29	97	0.78	193

Recept/Dig Leaders - 2012

#	Name	Class	SP	MP	MS	RE	Dig	Dig/S
4	Gonzalez, Dominique	So.	125	36	0	19	457	3.66
18	McClendon, Deja	Jr.	124	36	36	35	339	2.73
12	Hancock, Micha	So.	125	36	36	1	298	2.38
17	Courtney, Megan	Fr.	120	36	35	22	237	1.98
33	Fuller, Lacey	So.	119	36	1	2	169	1.42
6	Martin, Maddie	Jr.	62	30	1	10	71	1.15
5	Carpenter, Kristin	Sr.	95	36	6	0	54	0.57
	Penn State Total	n/a	125	36	36	97	1787	14.30
	Opponents	n/a	125	36	36	196	1663	13.30

Blocking and Points Leaders - 2012

#	Name	Cl	SP	MP	MS	BS	BA	TB	B/S	BE	Pts	Pts /S
1	Scott, Ariel	Jr.	125	36	35	11	91	102	0.82	3	528.5	4.23
18	McClendon, Deja	Jr.	124	36	36	23	47	70	0.56	6	467.5	3.77
16	Slay, Katie	Jr.	122	35	27	19	145	164	1.34	12	370.5	3.04
17	Courtney, Megan	Fr.	120	36	35	32	69	101	0.84	8	319.5	2.66
7	Grant, Nia	So.	120	35	35	7	108	115	0.96	11	260.0	2.17
12	Hancock, Micha	So.	125	36	36	8	68	76	0.61	6	248.0	1.98
6	Martin, Maddie	Jr.	62	30	1	0	8	8	0.13	1	69.0	1.11
	Team	n/a	125	36	36	103	547	376.5	3.01	49	2360.5	18.88
	Opponents	n/a	125	36	36	47	355	224.5	1.80	53	1667.5	13.34

Stanford Stats

Stanford Attack Leaders - 2012

Name	Sets Played	Matches Played	Matches Started	Kills	Kills/Set	Attack Errors	Total Attacks	Hitting Pct.
Burgess, Jordan	9	3	1	30	3.33	5	50	.500
Howard, Brittany	9	3	3	25	2.78	2	70	.329
Wopat, Carly	7	2	2	19	2.71	5	38	.368
Ajanaku, Inky	8	3	1	18	2.25	4	36	.389

Stanford Set/Serve Leaders - 2012

Name	Sets Played	Matches Played	Matches Started	Assists	Assists /Set	Service Aces	Service Aces/Set	Service Errors
Cook, Karissa	10	3	3	103	10.30	3	0.30	3
Burgess, Jordan	9	3	1	4	0.44	2	0.22	2
Howard, Brittany	9	3	3	3	0.33	2	0.22	2

Stanford Recept/Dig Leaders - 2012

Name	SP	RE	Dig	Dig/S
Burgess, Jordan	9	2	28	3.11
Cook, Karissa	10	0	26	2.60
Luck, Mary Ellen	10	0	19	1.90
Benjamin, Hannah	10	0	17	1.70

Stanford Blocking and Points Leaders - 2012

Name	SP	BS	Total	B/S	Points/Set
Burgess, Jordan	9	1	5	0.56	3.89
Howard, Brittany	9	1	1	0.11	3.11
Wopat, Carly	7	0	11	1.57	3.50
Ajanaku, Inky	8	1	6	0.75	2.69
Spelman, Hayley	8	0	6	0.75	2.25

Wild-Eyed Speculation 

From our Penn State Nike Big Four Fanalysis, by akbar and lionsfan:

akbar: Honestly…..whichever team passes, serves gets kill out of system the best!

lionsfan: Last year, the team had a horrendous performance at Stanford. Slay was one of the few bright spots, but Deja in particular was off. Williams and Wopat were just too good—as was the Cardinal block—and were the biggest factor in the win. It just seems that the young PSU team couldn’t get enough components working together at the same time to make it more competitive.

I think the teams are close, at least they seem close this early in the season when we don’t have much to go on. I think Friday’s match against Stanford may come down to the other factors off the court — Stanford was playing late Sunday night at Hawaii, a loss that surprised some people. They have to go back home and now have to travel all the way across the country to play a well-rested Penn State team with some players who have to be super-motivated to finally beat the Cardinal after two losses in this tournament. I imagine the crowd will be quite large — it’s a football weekend — and the match will be televised on BTN. It could be raucous. My gut says that because of those other factors, Penn State should be considered the slight favorite. (Again, a Stanford win would not surprise me!)

If you’ve read this far . . .

A little traveling music (arguably, written for fans of all kinds):