Inside the numbers of Mimi Colyer's offensive dominance
A conversation with Wisconsin director of player personnel and analytics Gary White sheds light on an All-American's standout season.
MADISON, Wis. — There isn’t just one number that illustrates the offensive dominance Mimi Colyer has displayed for the University of Wisconsin volleyball program this season.
Colyer, a unanimous first-team All-Big Ten selection, enters Wisconsin’s NCAA Tournament second-round matchup against North Carolina on Friday averaging 5.26 kills per set. That mark would clinch the program’s single-season mark in any era of Badgers women’s volleyball dating back to 1974.
Colyer’s hitting .338 overall, which includes a .563 mark during a first-round sweep Thursday against Eastern Illinois, and has recorded 20 or more kills in 10 matches.
Just last month, Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield listed off the names of a few prominent former Badgers who also have dominated offensively: middle blockers Sherisa Livingston and Dana Rettke, and outside hitters Molly Haggerty and Sarah Franklin.
But there’s one area and one number that stuck out to him that separated Colyer.
“We’re setting Mimi six rotations differently than what any of those guys did,” Sheffield said Nov. 17. “The middles, obviously, you’re not setting them six rotations. …Although (Sarah) was and Molly, both of them were able to hit out of the back row, the number of attempts that Mimi takes out of the back row and her hitting percentage out of the back row, way north of .300, is something we just haven’t had anybody even near that.