Week 2: Lionsfan Looks at Last Week, Next Week and the New Lionsfan Poll!

Posted on by Nyline
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Originally posted by Lionsfan on DigNittanyVolleyball Forum: Click Here for the conversation.

The Rivalry: Round 20

The storied rivalry between the sport’s two premier programs continues this Friday (barring any cancellation/rescheduling due to Hurricane Harvey), with fresh #1 Stanford looking to knot the series at 10 wins each.

Here’s a look at the history between these two teams:

  • Dec. 10, 1992 (Champaign, Ill.; NCAA Regional Semis): #2 Stanford defeats #9 Penn State 15-13, 15-6, 15-13
  • Aug. 23, 1997 (Palo Alto): #2 Penn State defeats #1 Stanford 15-8, 15-13, 15-9
  • Sept. 6, 1997 (Storrs, Conn.): #1 Penn State defeats #3 Stanford 14-16, 15-6, 15-12, 15-7
  • Dec. 20, 1997 (Spokane, Wash.; NCAA Championship): #3 Stanford defeats #2 Penn State 15-10, 15-6, 2-15, 15-17, 15-9
  • Dec. 18, 1999 (Honolulu, NCAA Championship): #1 Penn State defeats #2 Stanford 15-2, 15-10, 15-7
  • Sept. 4, 2001 (State College): #9 Stanford defeats #4 Penn State 28-30, 30-26, 30-16, 30-23
  • Sept. 10, 2004 (Palo Alto): #7 Penn State defeats #12 Stanford 31-29, 23-30, 30-25, 26-30, 15-12
  • Aug. 26, 2005 (Omaha): #3 Stanford defeats #5 Penn State 30-24, 30-24, 28-30, 23-30, 15-10
  • Sept. 15, 2007 (New Haven, Conn.): #2 Stanford defeats #3 Penn State 30-23, 23-30, 27-30, 30-28, 15-9
  • Dec. 15, 2007 (Sacramento; NCAA Championship): #1 Penn State defeats #4 Stanford 30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8
  • Dec. 20, 2008 (Omaha; NCAA Championship): #1 Penn State defeats #2 Stanford 25-20, 26-24, 25-23
  • Sept. 11, 2010 (Gainesville, Fla.): #2 Stanford defeats #1 Penn State 28-26, 25-12, 25-18
  • Sept. 9, 2011 (Palo Alto): #3 Stanford defeats #2 Penn State 23-25, 25-19, 27-25, 25-18
  • Aug. 31, 2012 (State College): #4 Penn State defeats #9 Stanford 25-13, 25-27, 25-23, 23-25, 15-13
  • Dec. 14, 2013 (Lexington, Ky.; NCAA Regional Final): #2 Penn State defeats #3 Stanford 22-25, 25-22, 28-26, 18-25, 15-11
  • Sept. 5, 2014 (Palo Alto): #2 Stanford defeats #1 Penn State 18-25, 25-23, 25-22, 16-25, 15-10
  • Dec. 19, 2014 (Oklahoma City; NCAA Final Four): #4 Penn State defeats #1 Stanford 25-16, 23-25, 25-22, 25-21
  • Sept. 5, 2015 (State College): #1 Penn State defeats #2 Stanford 25-21, 25-22, 25-18
  • Sept. 4, 2016 (Boulder, Colo.): #9 Stanford defeats #13 Penn State 26-24, 25-18, 25-22
  • Sept. 1, 2017 (College Station, Texas): #1 Stanford vs. #5 Penn State

Penn State and Stanford: By the Numbers

  • 209 NCAA tournament match wins between the two programs*
  • 157 times one of these programs has been ranked #1**
  • 15 times the teams have both been ranked in the Top 5 when meeting (including this year)
  • 14 national titles between the two programs
  • 13 times the teams have met on neutral ground (including this year)
  • 7 times a team swept (4-3 Penn State)
  • 6 times the teams have met as No. 1 and No. 2
  • 4 meetings in Palo Alto
  • 3 meetings in State College
  • 2 streaks broken in the series***
  • 2 times in their entire series history that a team was not in the Top 10 when they played each other (2004, #12 Stanford; 2016, #13 Penn State)

Notes:

  • *Penn State has 94 tournament game wins, while Stanford has 115…including a consolation match win over Pacific in 1983 for 3rd place.
  • **Penn State has been ranked #1 a total of 88 times in the poll, Stanford 69 times. Only Nebraska (98 times) has more.
  • ***In the season-opening match of 1997, Penn State broke Stanford’s 50-match home win streak at Maples; in their 2010 meeting, Stanford broke Penn State’s 109-match win streak (a streak that started the match after Penn State’s regular-season loss to Stanford in 2007).

Stanford’s Top Competition

Not many programs can claim they have a winning record over the Cardinal—in fact, there are only four. Here are the only five programs that Stanford does not hold a winning record over:

  • St. Louis (0-1) .000
  • Michigan (2-3) .400
  • Hawaii (13-19) .406
  • Penn State (9-10) .474
  • Nebraska (6-6) .500

Back on Top

With their ascension to the top spot, Stanford has held the #1 ranking a total of 69 times according to the AVCA record books (Lionsfan thinks that the final polls after the tournament may not count in its records?). That’s 19 short of Penn State’s 88 and 29 short of Nebraska’s leading 98.

Polls: It’s lonely at the top

Poll Notes

Gators Rise: With impressive wins over previously top-ranked Texas and #5 Nebraska, Florida jumped from #12 to #3 in the polls—its highest ranking since #2 on Sept. 7, 2015. It’s the first time in program history that the Gators defeated top-five opponents in consecutive matches. The Gators improved their all-time record against Texas to 15-9, and they beat Nebraska for the third time in 11 matches.

From the Florida SID: “Florida improves its all-time record against No. 1-ranked teams to 3-14—the other two wins were a 3-0 sweep of Stanford in Gainesville (Sep. 14, 2002) and a 3-2 win against Penn State in Lincoln, Neb. (Aug. 27, 1999).”

That might be a good omen for Texas: Penn State’s season-opening loss to the Gators in 1999 would be its only loss of the season as the Nittany Lions rattled off 36 wins and won a national championship.

Florida’s attendance against Texas was 7,523, the second-largest home crowd in program history (but apparently “a school record for a standalone volleyball match”). They watched sophomore middle blocker Rachael Kramer turn in a monster weekend that saw her pick up the Sports Imports/AVCA Division I Women Player of the Week award, hitting .549 over the two matches—including a career-high 20 kills with a .679 clip against the Huskers.

The Gators head to San Juan for the SEC-ACC Challenge and matches with N.C. State and #16 North Carolina, which dropped five spots after getting swept by Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Creighton Statement: The Bluejays’ 3-1 win at then-#3 Washington was the highest ranked win in program history, surpassing the program’s 3-2 win over No. 4 Kansas in the second round of last year’s tournament. It also snapped the Huskies’ 81-match win streak in regular season non-conference matches (a 3-2 loss to Hawaii on Sept. 13, 2008). As noted by the Bluejay SID: “Creighton has now beaten a top-10 team in each of the last three seasons after going without a top-10 victory from 1994-2014.”

The win moved the Bluejays to a program-high #7, bettering their previous two #9 rankings. It also marks the first time ever that Creighton has been ranked higher than in-state rival Nebraska, which dropped from #5 to #12 after two losses to ranked teams (Florida and Oregon). That marks the Huskers lowest ranking since #13 on November 3, 2014 (Nebraska would be ranked as low as #14 in 2014).

Things don’t get any easier this weekend for the Bluejays. Expect a raucous home crowd for the Bluejay Invitational—which features three more 3-0 teams, each with a win over a ranked foe: #13 Kentucky, #18 USC and Northern Iowa (receiving votes).

USC in, Hawaii Out: After failing to appear in the preseason poll for the first time in history, Southern Cal quickly rectified the situation with a 3-0 weekend (each a 3-1 win), highlighted by a victory over then-#16 Michigan. The Trojans are now #18 and have a tough weekend ahead against #7 Creighton, #13 Kentucky (at 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday…ouch!) and Northern Iowa (RV), also all 3-0 on the season.

Hawaii, meanwhile, showed grit in a 3-2 loss at home to UCLA—but losses to San Diego and (especially) Marquette had them 0-3 on the weekend, dropping them out of the poll for just the 12th time in history. Credit to BuckysHeat on VolleyTalk for digging up these nuggets: “Hawaii was ranked in the top 25 for 9 of 16 polls in 2014, highest was #17 in preseason poll finishing at 23rd. Prior to that they were ranked top 25 on 9 of 13 polls in 1992 starting the season at #13 before falling completely out after the 6th week. This is the third year since the top 25 started coming out in 1982 that they are not in the top 25.”

Hawaii’s next home tournament is highlighted by a match against #22 Utah.

Other Notable Results

With a 3-1 win over #24 Arizona, Lipscomb got its first victory over a ranked team since knocking off #23 Utah in the opening weekend of 2015 (although a 3-0 loss to Wichita State kept them out of the poll).
Georgia Tech’s surprising 3-1 win over then-#17 Michigan State was its first over a top-25 opponent since the 3-1 win over No. 18 Florida State on Oct. 4, 2013, and the third highest at O’Keefe Gymnasium (No. 8 Notre Dame in 1995; No. 14 Duke in 1997).
Missouri had a bad Saturday, dropping two 3-2 matches to Northern Iowa and Austin Peay—which was down 10-5 in the fifth set before winning it 17-15 (sadly, the Austin Peay SID isn’t easily sharing how many ranked teams the Govs have beaten).
With 3-0 weekends, Western Kentucky and Iowa State entered the last two spots of the poll…but Lionsfan thinks other teams have better cases (see his poll below). Dropping out were Missouri, Hawaii and Arizona.

Conference Roll Call: The Big Ten continues to lead all conferences with 8 teams in the Top 25 (#2 Minnesota, #5 Penn State, #6 Wisconsin, #12 Nebraska, #19 Michigan, #20 Ohio State, #21 Purdue, #23 Michigan State), followed by the Pac 12 with 6 (#1 Stanford, #8 Washington, #11 UCLA, #14 Oregon, #19 Southern Cal, #22 Utah).

The Big Matches: Week 2

In addition to the showdown in Texas, Creighton will host the big event of the weekend:

  • #1 Stanford vs. #5 Penn State (N)
  • #3 Florida vs. #16 North Carolina (N)
  • #4 Texas @ #17 San Diego
  • #13 Kentucky @ #7 Creighton
  • #18 Southern Cal @ #7 Creighton
  • #13 Kentucky vs. #18 Southern Cal (N)

Upset watch

  • Northern Iowa @ #7 Creighton, vs. #13 Kentucky and #18 Southern Cal
  • Texas A&M vs. #1 Stanford and #5 Penn State
  • N.C. State vs. #3 Florida
  • Arkansas vs. #6 Wisconsin
  • Kansas State vs. #6 Wisconsin
  • Long Beach vs. #9 Kansas
  • Missouri vs. #10 BYU
  • Loyola Marymount vs. #14 Oregon
  • Colorado State vs. #15 Florida State
  • Texas Christian vs. #15 Florida State
  • Auburn vs. #16 North Carolina
  • Lipscomb @ #20 Ohio State
  • Missouri State @ #20 Ohio State
  • Wyoming vs. #21 Purdue
  • Hawaii vs. #22 Utah
  • Louisville vs. #24 Western Kentucky
  • Illinois vs. #24 Western Kentucky
  • Dayton vs. #25 Iowa State
  • Pittsburgh vs. #25 Iowa State

Lionsfan’s Top 25

1. Stanford (+1)
2. Florida (+6)
3. Texas (-2)
4. Penn State
5. Minnesota
6. Creighton (+8)
7. Wisconsin
8. UCLA (+3)
9. Kansas
10. Washington (-7)
11. Oregon (+2)
12. Nebraska (-6)
13. BYU (+2)
14. Southern Cal (+4)
15. Kentucky (+4)
16. Florida State (NR…oops! Forgot to put them in last week)
17. San Diego (NR…intentional omission last week…oh well!)
18. Michigan (-2)
19. Utah (+2)
20. Wichita State (NR)
21. Northern Iowa (NR)
22. Purdue
23. North Carolina (-13)
24. Lipscomb (NR)
25. Baylor (-1) (tough call with Ohio State)

Dropped out: Michigan State, Hawaii, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Colorado State

Credits

  • Polar bears and submarine, by Chief Yeoman Alphonso Braggs, US-Navy.  This Image was released by the United States Navy with the ID 031000-N-XXXXB-001.  Courtesy of Wikimedia.com.
  • Guilded lion, by Fan Yang – yes, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14595381.  This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.