Lee J Hinkle and Dr. Iain Hunter, Exercise Science

Thanks to the Office of Research and Creative Activities, I have been able to continue my research project investigating the relationship between the timing of a volleyball offense and its effectiveness. Since receiving the grant I have increased my data set by more than 1,000 occurrences, analyzed the data using two different statistical methods, and begun the processes of writing my honors thesis and preparing the results for publication in Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. Although I indicated I would complete the project by September 2010, my mentor, Dr. Iain Hunter, and I realized this goal was not attainable. Volleyball season ended in May and the initial analysis of 1,000 more data points required more than a month of effort. When I brought that collection of data to Dr. Hunter, he strongly suggested I work with a statistics professor because statistical analysis is not his forté. He put me in touch with Dr. Gil Fellingham, who has been involved in sports analytics, and volleyball analytics in particular, for his entire career. Working closely with Dr. Fellingham proved slightly difficult due to scheduling conflicts; consequently, we completed analyzing the data on 15 September 2010. My current focuses are preparing my honors thesis with Dr. Hunter’s and Dr. Fellingham’s supervision and preparing an article for JQAS with Dr. Fellingham and Dr. Hunter. My goal is write the thesis and article by December 2010 and submit each document to its respective review board for publication early in 2011.