Penn State started the B1G Season in fine style, with a sweep of Wisconsin in Madison on September 24th, and followed that with a 3-1 victory over Minnesota in Minneapolis.  The fun stopped there, as the Nittany Lions suffered a 3-1 loss to Nebraska in Lincoln on October 3rd.

Penn State’s Head Coach Russ Rose made a lineup change the next night for the match against Iowa, replacing 6-1 Fr. OH Simone Lee with 6-3 Fr. MH Haleigh Washington, moving 6-4 RS Jr. Aiyana Whitney to Opp/RS and moving 6-2 Jr. Megan Courtney from Opp/RS to OH (where she had played — and thrived as one of the leading solo blockers in the country — for the previous two seasons).  Washington wasn’t a major factor in the match (two kills and one block assist), but Penn State played well enough to sweep the Hawkeyes.

Nonetheless, Lee was back in the lineup for the next match — a 3-0 win in Rec Hall over Northwestern.  Then, the following night — a 3-1 upset loss to Illinois on October 11th — Rose went back to the lineup with Haleigh Washington at MH (along with 6-2 Sr. Nia Grant), Whitney at Opp/RS, and Courtney at OH (along with 6-1 Fr. Ali Frantti).

As the Nittany Lions headed to West Lafayette to take on the tough Purdue Boilermakers, the question on everyone’s mind was which lineup would Rose choose.  The answer was Washington, Grant, Whitney, Courtney and Frantti, as Penn State won a tough 3-2 victory.  And that’s been the lineup ever since.

We were curious about how the team and individual statistics in the four B1G matches without Haleigh Washington in the lineup, compared to the team and individual statistics in the eight B1G matches with Haleigh Washington in the lineup.  Of course, that question requires several qualifiers: first, both data sets are small — four and eight matches, respectively.  So results aren’t necessarily determinative of anything.  Second, there were different opponents for the two samples — no overlap whatsoever.  Finally, even setting the first two qualifiers aside, it would be foolish to conclude that the statistical differences between the two data sets are attributable solely to the fact that Washington wasn’t in the lineup for the set of four matches, but was in the lineup for the set of eight matches.  There are too many variables in the performances of all the players to reach that conclusion.

With that in mind, we still wanted to look at the question, so we put together the three tables below: Penn State’s B1G Attack Stats with (and without) Haleigh Washington, Penn State’s B1G Sideout Stats with (and without) Haleigh Washington, and Penn State Players’ B1G Attack and Blocking Stats with (and without) Haleigh Washington.

The most important statistic — wins and losses — isn’t even in the tables.  Penn State went 3-1 in the four B1G matches without Haleigh Washington in lineup, and has gone 7-1 in the eight B1G matches with Haleigh Washington in lineup.  Penn State’s “Net Attack %” (Penn State’s attack % minus their Opponent’s attack %) with Haleigh Washington in the lineup is .130.  Without Washington in the lineup, it’s .122.  Penn State’s “Net Sideout %) (Penn State’s Sideout % minus their Opponent’s Sideout %) is 18% with Washington in the lineup compared to 12% without her in the lineup.

Looking at individual statistics, without Washington in the lineup, Aiyana Whitney (then playing primarily at MH) was the leading blocker, with 1.64 blocks/set, with Nia Grant ranking second with 1.21 blocks/set, and Megan Courtney next with 1.00.

In the eight matches with Haleigh Washington in the lineup, Haleigh is the leading blocker with 1.56 blocks/set (including 8 solo blocks), with Nia Grant and Micha Hancock next with 0.81 blocks/set.

Take a look:

Team Stats

Penn State's B1G Attack Stats with (and without) Haleigh Washington

	SP	PSU Kills	PSU Err	PSU TA	PSU %
PSU (w/o Haleigh)	14	206	69	524	.261
Opponents (w/o Haleigh)	14	163	94	498	.139
PSU Net Attack % w/o Haleigh	14	--	--	--	.122
PSU (with Haleigh)	27	383	107	839	.329
Opponents (with Haleigh)	27	307	144	819	.199
PSU Net Attack % (with Haleigh)	27	--	--	--	.130

Penn State's B1G Sideout Stats with (and without) Haleigh Washington

	SP	SO	SOA	SO%
PSU Sideout Stats (w/o Haleigh)	14	187	282	66%
Opponent Sideout Stats (w/o Haleigh)	14	185	340	54%
Net SO % (w/o Haleigh)	14	--	--	12%
Opponent Sideout Stats (with Haleigh)	27	348	497	70%
Opponent Sideout Stats (with Haleigh)	27	340	649	52%
Net SO % (with Haleigh)	27	--	--	18%

Individual Stats

Penn State Player's B1G Attack and Blocking Stats with (and without) Haleigh Washington

Player	MP	SP	K	K/S	E	TA	%	BS	BA	TB	B/S
Frantti, Ali (with Haleigh)	8	27	92	3.41	24	218	.312	2	12	14	0.52
Frantti, Ali (w/o Haleigh)	4	14	41	2.93	15	106	.245	0	8	8	0.57
Grant, Nia (with Haleigh)	8	27	61	2.26	16	109	.413	2	20	22	0.81
Grant, Nia (w/o Haleigh)	4	14	37	2.64	9	74	.378	3	14	17	1.21
Hancock, Micha (with Haleigh)	8	27	33	1.22	5	67	.418	1	21	22	0.81
Hancock, Micha (w/o Haleigh)	4	14	17	1.21	3	38	.368	0	11	11	0.79
Whitney, Aiyana (with Haleigh)	8	27	81	3.00	29	176	.295	0	9	9	0.33
Whitney, Aiyana (w/o Haleigh)	4	14	36	2.57	11	75	.333	1	22	23	1.64
Courtney, Megan (with Haleigh)	8	27	53	1.96	22	143	.217	2	13	15	0.56
Courtney, Megan (w/o Haleigh)	4	14	41	2.93	14	122	.221	1	13	14	1.00
Washington, Haleigh	8	27	63	2.33	11	124	.419	8	34	42	1.56
Lee, Simone	4	14	33	2.36	17	107	.150	0	5	5	0.36

____________________________________________________

Detailed Tables

B1G Attack Stats w/o Haleigh Washington

Match	SP	PSU K	PSU E	PSU TA	PSU %	Opp K	Opp E	Opp TA	Opp %
WI	3	53	17	125	.288	35	17	122	.148
MN	4	59	19	153	.261	42	30	133	.090
NE	4	52	23	152	.191	53	25	143	.196
NW	3	42	10	94	.340	33	22	100	.110
Total	14	206	69	524	.261	163	94	498	.139

B1G Attack Stats w/ Haleigh Washington

Match	SP	PSU K	PSU E	PSU TA	PSU %	Opp K	Opp E	Opp TA	Opp %
IA	3	44	12	85	.376	20	11	67	.134
IL	4	67	18	158	.310	61	16	143	.315
Purdue	5	65	28	171	.216	65	25	165	.242
IN	3	42	7	70	.500	31	16	72	.208
MI	3	47	8	88	.443	32	17	94	.160
MSU	3	42	17	97	.258	36	13	93	.247
OSU (Home)	3	39	7	86	.372	33	23	92	.109
OSU (Away)	3	37	10	84	.321	29	23	93	.065
Total	27	383	107	839	.329	307	144	819	.199

B1G Sideout Stats w/o Haleigh Washington

Match	SP	PSU SO	PSU SOA	PSU SO%	Opp SO	Opp SOA	Opp SO%
WI	3	40	61	65%	39	74	52%
MN	4	51	80	63%	50	101	49%
NE	4	55	86	63%	56	91	61%
NW	3	41	55	74%	40	74	54%
Total	14	187	282	66%	185	340	54%

B1G Sideout Stats w/ Haleigh Washington

Match	SP	PSU SO	PSU SOA	PSU SO%	Opp SO	Opp SOA	Opp SO%
IA	3	30	40	75%	29	75	38%
IL	4	54	91	59%	55	95	57%
Purdue	5	69	107	64%	68	110	61%
IN	3	36	47	76%	34	73	46%
MI	3	36	51	70%	35	74	47%
MSU	3	46	63	73%	45	75	60%
OSU (Home)	3	42	50	83%	40	73	54%
OSU (Away)	3	35	48	72%	34	74	45%
Total	27	348	497	70%	340	649	52%