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Through analyzing our proprietary information, we were able to identify which college women’s volleyball programs garnered the greatest interest from athletes on the SportsRecruits platform, as well as which programs showed the largest increase in interest from 2015 to 2016.
SportsRecruits Interest Score™ Rankings: Top 5 Most Popular Collegiate Women’s Volleyball Programs
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Observations
- Duke was the most coveted destination for recruits in 2016, based on SportsRecruits Interest Scores™ rankings. The Blue Devils have made 12 NCAA Tournament appearances in the last 14 seasons, and the next generation of student-athletes is eager to join the ranks for their chance to compete for a national title.
- Stanford coaching legend John Dunning announced his retirement in January after winning his 3rd national championship with the Cardinal in 2016. New coach Kevin Hambly returns more than enough talent to return to championship weekend.
- UNC won the ACC title in 2016, going 19-1 in conference play. This was the school’s 13th conference title, and the fifth for Tar Heels head coach Joe Sagula.
- The Florida Gators will be returning all but one player on a team that finished 4th in the country in assists per game (13.72) and reached the NCAA tournament for the 26th straight year – tied for the fourth-longest appearance streak in tournament history.
- The Texas Longhorns add the top rated recruiting class in the country to a team that made it all the way to the National Championship after knocking out the 1 seed in Nebraska in the final four.
Colleges With the Greatest Interest Growth
We also found large shifts in student-athletes’ interest in college volleyball programs from 2015 to 2016. Xavier experienced the greatest surge in popularity with a 26.9 point increase in their SportsRecruits Interest Score™. They were followed closely by the University of Houston, which saw their scores increase by 26.4 points. North Carolina climbed to number 6 in overall SportsRecruits Interest Scores™ with an increase of 23.5 points.
To see how other schools fared, click here to download our comprehensive list.
Methodology
SportsRecruits Interest Scores™ for women’s volleyball are calculated from the activity of over 25,000 high school women’s volleyball players on the SportsRecruits platform. Schools are scored on a 0 to 100 scale based on two, equally weighted metrics: the number of messages sent to the school and the number of active prospects with the school on their target list. A benchmark is determined by the highest ranked school for each metric, and a normalized score is calculated based on each school’s distance from the benchmark.
