Statistical Analysis of Men's FIVB Beach Volleyball Team Performance

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in playing characteristics between winning (W) and losing (L) teams in FIVB men's Beach Volleyball (BV) World Tour tournament. A total of 2786 hours and 5044 points of Beach Volleyball were recorded in 59 matches or 118 sets of the 1^st 2003 FIVB men's BV tournament in Rhodes, Greece. The technical skills analyzed were serve, attack, block and dig. Independent t-tests were used to compare the differences in technical skills between a) W2-0 and L2-0, b) W2-1 and L2-1. Discriminant function analysis determined which skill(s) contributed significantly to winning in matches with 2-0 and 2-1 scores. Results showed that in 2-0 matches winners had better performance than losers in almost all technical skills. Specifically, opponents' attack errors were the most important factor contributing to winners' win. In matches won by 2-1 sets, winners had better performance than losers only in the total of points won. Contrary to matches won by 2-0 sets, in 2-1 matches it was not possible to establish a model indicating that a technical skill could act as predictor for the wining teams' win in relation to losing teams.