Inside the Numbers - BUL vs POL

Set distribution is a stat that depends on many factors. Setter preference and ability, coach game plans, and the players that are attacking and blocking. In this match between Bulgaria and Poland, both teams favoured different sides of the court in attacking.

Bulgaria ran 55% of their attacks on the left side, or position 4. This is because their best hitter, Elitsa Vasileva, plays there. She had 51 attacking attempts in the match, over 20 more than any other player from Bulgaria.She only scored on 13 of those 51 sets, perhaps due to the fact that blockers were able to overload on her. 

Poland opted for a more balanced attack, as setter Joanna Wolosz used the right side 40% of the time and the left side 42% of the time.Its tough to say if this was because of Wolosz's preference for setting the ball behind her, or because the superior reception of Poland gave her more options to play with (Libero Maria Stenzel was particularly impressive with 93% positive reception).

Stats can help us understand the game, but we still need to understand the context behind them. Hawkeye does a good job at bringing together statistics and game footage in a way that wasn't possible before to give us another layer of understanding about volleyball. 

Data provided by Hawk-eye Innovations