As the start of our fall sports season grows closer, we’re busy working on preseason information, online guides and all of the background and facts we’ll use during 2011.
Yesterday, volleyball was on my plate, and now that Susie Johnson has been the head coach for four seasons, it seemed like a good time to add up all of her numbers in those typical “record when” categories.
Overall, Susie is 85-36 in four season and 53-11 in Horizon League regular season matches. Impressive numbers to say the least and ones you probably already knew about. But, how about these numbers – some pretty good tells on what the Panthers do to be successful.
Hitting Percentage – It seems to be the best go-to stat for determining a winner. In four seasons under Johnson, UWM is 81-8 when hitting better than its opponent and 4-28 when hitting worse. Plus, Milwaukee is 55-5 in the last four seasons when hitting above .200.
Defense – Milwaukee has held its opponent under .200 92 times (winning 76 of those matches), while opponents have hit better than .200 just 29 times (UWM is 9-20 in those contests). The Panthers have also outdug their opponent 81 times (winning 65 of those) while being on the short end of the dig category 38 times (19-19).
Winning The Close Ones – UWM has gone to five sets 34 times in the last four years, winning 22 of those matches.
League domination – The 53-11 league mark over the last four years – plus a 7-2 mark in the league tournament – has seen the Panthers almost always take care of business against the teams that have typically been in the bottom half of the league. Milwaukee is a combined 39-4 against Loyola, UIC, Green Bay, Wright State and Youngstown State.
All pretty impressive numbers and ones we’ll use to follow trends during the 2011 year.
By the way, the most impressive number of all is this – this year, Milwaukee will be looking for either a league regular season or tournament championship for the 15th-straight season.
