Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

They Might Be (Volleyball) Giants?

In  early May, Jack Hamann of Volleyblog Seattle, began a post about the September 14th match between the University of Washington and Penn State University, with this statement:

Two volleyball giants—Washington and Penn State—will square off this September in State College, Pennsylvania.

That elicited some pushback in the blogosphere — what makes a team a volleyball giant? Given that Washington and Penn State are two of only six teams that have won NCAA Division I women’s volleyball titles in the 2000s, we thought both qualified as “volleyball giants.”

Jack Hamann took the question a step further in a May 16th post on Volleyblog Seattle: “Who are volleyball’s giants?”  Hamann explained:

I soon heard back from a reader who disagreed. Without offering his/her own list, the reader thought the Huskies do not deserve to be mentioned among volleyball’s elite.

Realizing I had lauded Washington based on gut reaction rather than research, I decided to crunch some numbers to see if my description was justified.

And so, I checked data from the past ten years, and came up with my own ranking of Division 1 women’s volleyball top ten over the past decade. I then tried to cobble a list of those who might deserve to be in the next ten—not quite giants.

Hamann put together a chart, which you can see by Clicking Here, ranking teams on the basis of National Championships, Final Four appearances, Elite Eights, wins and losses, and winning percentage.  It’s an interesting list, and worth a look.

After you do (or before you do — we always say, why get bogged down with facts!) vote below on who you think are the NCAA Division 1 volleyball giants.  For some perspective, take a look at the table that follows the poll (and for some inspiration, take a look at the video that precedes it):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeQ-wjDH4F4[/youtube]

[poll id=”5″]

Won-Lost Records (Matches and Sets): Final Four Teams from 1998 to 2011

Year	Team	Conference	NCAA Finish	Wins (Matches)	Losses (Matches)	Wins (Sets)	Losses (Sets)
2008	Penn State	Big Ten	First	38	0	114	2
2009	Penn State	Big Ten	First	38	0	114	8
1998	Long Beach	Big West	First	36	0	108	8
2003	USC	Pac 10	First	35	0	105	8
2000	Nebraska	Big 12	First	34	0	102	13
1999	Penn State	Big Ten	First	36	1	110	15
2006	Nebraska	Big 12	First	33	1	101	14
2005	Washington	Pac 10	First	32	1	98	10
2002	USC	Pac 10	First	31	1	95	12
2007	Penn State	Big Ten	First	34	2	104	18
2001	Stanford	Pac 10	First	33	2	101	21
2010	Penn State	Big Ten	First	32	5	103	20
2011	UCLA	Pac 12	First	30	6	97	31
2004	Stanford	Pac 10	First	30	6	98	35
2001	Long Beach	Big West	Second	33	1	NA	NA
1998	Penn State	Big Ten	Second	34	1	104	6
2003	Florida	SEC	Second	36	2	109	8
2005	Nebraska	Big 12	Second	33	2	101	15
2009	Texas	Big 12	Second	29	2	91	13
2007	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	32	3	101	24
1999	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	31	3	95	18
2000	Wisconsin	Big Ten	Second	33	4	NA	NA
2008	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	31	4	95	23
2006	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	30	4	92	19
2010	California	Pac 10	Second	30	4	95	23
2011	Illinois	Big Ten	Second	32	5	100	43
2004	Minnesota	Big Ten	Second	33	5	105	34
2002	Stanford	Pac 10	Second	32	5	102	27
2003	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	36	2	109	16
2002	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	34	2	102	12
1998	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	32	2	99	16
2000	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	31	2	95	16
2001	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	31	2	94	14
1998	Florida	SEC	Semi-finals	35	3	107	24
2002	Florida	SEC	Semi-finals	34	3	105	17
2009	Hawaii	WAC	Semi-finals	32	3	100	17
1999	Pacific	Big West	Semi-finals	32	3	NA	NA
2008	Nebraska	Big 12	Semi-finals	31	3	97	21
2000	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	3	87	20
2004	Washington	Pac 10	Semi-finals	28	3	89	23
2006	UCLA	Pac 10	Semi-finals	33	4	104	24
1999	Long Beach	Big West	Semi-finals	31	4	95	23
2008	Texas	Big 12	Semi-finals	29	4	94	24
2011	USC	Pac 12	Semi-finals	29	5	91	25
2006	Washington	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	5	92	26
2007	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	29	5	91	35
2005	Santa Clara	WCC	Semi-finals	27	5	88	30
2001	Arizona	Pac 10	Semi-finals	25	5	79	25
2010	USC	Pac 10	Semi Finals	29	6	91	36
2010	Texas	Big 12	Semi Finals	27	6	84	34
2004	USC	Pac 10	Semi-finals	23	6	76	32
2011	Florida State	ACC	Semi-finals	28	7	90	39
2007	California	Pac 10	Semi-finals	26	8	87	36
2009	Minnesota	Big Ten	Semi-finals	28	9	88	41
2003	Minnesota	Big Ten	Semi-finals	26	11	85	49
2005	Tennessee	SEC	Semi-finals	19	12	70	49