Four-peat: Penn State Earns Blocking Team of the Year

The Collegiate Volleyball Update (CVU) is pleased to announce its selection of Penn State as the 2009 Blocking Team of the Year.

The Nittany Lions make it four years in a row for the award, having earned top honors in the category in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Penn State averaged 3.23 blocks per set on the year, bettering last year's 3.22 blocks per set and finishing just behind Idaho for the top NCAA mark this season.

The remainder of CVU's Top Five has a few repeat honorees, as well as a new team. After averaging an NCAA-best 3.23 blocks per set, Idaho returns to the list and is joined by South Florida, which made the Top Five in 2007. Fellow Big East school Pittsburgh makes the list for the first time, while Ohio, which earned a spot in 2004, rounds out the selections

Blocking Team of the Year

Penn State

Honorable Mentions

• Idaho
• Ohio
• Pittsburgh
• South Florida

To aid selection, team stats were used. Rather than strictly using blocks per game, a formula was developed to score blocking. An average number of opponent attempts per game was figured, and by using that, an approximate efficiency was calculated. Further, a team's blocking errors were also including in the figures to come up with the final numbers.

For more information on the methods used, to provide input, or help develop these methods, please contact CVU here. Feedback is welcome.

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