Set Distribution from LBSU vs BYU Feb 20, 2015

Tonight #9 LBSU played at #5 BYU. BYU won this one in 3 sets (25-22, 25-16, 25-22). I tracked stats on set distribution again because of the primary camera view from the side of the court. I did pretty much the same thing this time around, but I added side out tracking. Side out percentage (SO%) is easy to track, and I like to have SO% available to me all the time. Ideally I like having SO% by rotation, but that would be a bit much to track along with set distribution.

I basically organized the information the same as last time. There weren't any setter attacks on the second contact during this match. Both teams set zones 2 and 4 extensively. LBSU set zone 6 a lot more (about 13% vs about 5%), but still not a significant amount. Even combined with attacks by the middles, the pin hitters are still getting about 75% of sets for LBSU and 80% of sets for BYU. I can't help but wonder if Tyler Hildebrand's coaching has to do with the higher percentage of sets to zone 6. Coach Hildebrand is the acting head coach and a former setter at LBSU. He was the starting setter for a very good 2004 team that finished the season dropping a very close 5 set match against BYU in the national championship final. He led the nation in assists per set that year, and he has some international experience with the US team.

Here are the set distribution numbers along with attempts in those zones by FBSO attempts, other attempts, and total attempts. Both teams had some success setting zone 3 and BYU had some success setting zone 6, but both didn't have that many attempts in either zone. That may have to do with passing, but I don't have passing stats for the match. LBSU probably wouldn't see much of a change in kill percentage by setting the outsides more, or setting the opposite more. BYU on the other hand looks like they might have a little better kill percentage if they shift the set frequency a little more toward zone 2. Their zone 2 kill percentage was best, but zone 4 got 1 more set than zone 2 for every 10 total sets. If the zone 4 and zone 2 set distribution was swapped, they would have scored almost 1 kill per set more. Even more so if zone 2 was the primary option on FBSO attempts.

Here are the FBSO numbers alongside the SO numbers. I have heard of 70% as a SO% goal for men's college teams. A few other numbers to further break down the SO numbers. LBSU scored 17 points on FBSO kills, 13 points on BYU serving errors, and 9 points after the FBSO attempt. That leaves 28 missed SO attempts that were that were not receive errors that were either hitting errors, BYU blocks or BYU kills. BYU scored 16 points on FBSO kills, 14 points on LBSU serving errors, and 13 points after the FBSO attempt. There were 19 missed SO attempts that were not receive errors that were either hitting errors, LBSU blocks or LBSU kills.