Collecting roll data associated with a sensing roll and a mating roll forming a nip includes generating sensor signals from a first sensor array on the sensing roll and a second sensor array on the mating roll during rotations of the mating rolls and sensing rolls. A periodically occurring first time reference is associated with each rotation of the mating roll and a periodically occurring second time reference is associated with each rotation of the sensing roll. For a received sensor signal, based on whether the received signal is from the sensors of the mating roll or the sensing roll, a tracking segment on the other roll is detected that enters a region of the nip concurrent with the sensor that generated the received signal. The detection is made from either a most-recent-identified first time reference or second time reference. The received signal can then be stored using the detected tracking segment.