Subbing for John, the love of his life and hardcore Volleyball Mom: Maureen
Why ,Gophers, why? Always winning it in the 5th set? Just want your fans to watch more sets? Wish I could have been in the Pav for all the excitement!
1st set – not bad. The Gophers opened with Miyabe at one Middle (opposite Pittman) instead of Rubright, Myer or Huseman, and Miyabe was solid. Rollins, Samedy and Landfair all had 3 kills each. The Gophers didn’t take the lead until 11-10 in the set, and later led 16-15, 22-20, and finished the set 25-20 on a Landfair kill and a Shaffmaster Ace.
2nd set – AARGH! Illinois jumped to an early lead and won 15-25. Every hit by Illinois seemed to find the floor, and every hit by the Gophers was dug by the Illini’s excellent defense. Our receives were hurting us and their defense rendered our hitting useless. The Gophers seemed confused at times, and Shaffmaster’s setting was off.
3rd set – More competitive, but still not enough. The set was tied at 7-7, the Gophers later pulled to within 16-17 on a Landfair/Miyabe block, and Samedy, as always the answer when the Gophers are struggling, had a good set. But The Illinois setter seemed more effective at distributing the ball, including multiple quick-sets to her Middles, which we weren’t seeing from Shaffmaster. The Gophs got to within 20-22, but 3 consecutive Illinois kills put the set away 20-25.
4th set – Much better! Samedy continued to crush the ball, and, suddenly, the Gopher blockers, especially Miyabe, but also Landfair, Rollins, Samedy and Pittman, shut down the Illini hitters. The Gophs led 10-7, 14-8, 19-13 and 23-18 on the way to a 25-20 win. Only the serving of Illinois’ Libero, Cooper (the Big 10 leader in aces), kept the Illini in the set.
5th Set – WHEW! Samedy was reliable as always, but it was Shaffmaster who really stepped up with 2 kills (6 for the match, both left-handed and right-handed), 3 blocks and 3 aces, in addition to her effective setting to Samedy and Rollins, and one smooth “slide” to Pittman. The Illini diggers made it really hard to put a ball away, and kept the set close. But after the Gophs took a 13-11 lead, the Illinois hitters seemed to choke, and 2 Illinois errors gave the Gophs a 15-11 5th set victory.
Final stats: Samady: 18 kills, 4 blocks, Rollins 14 kills, 3 blocks, Landfair 10 kills, 3 blocks, Pittman 5 kills, 9 blocks and Miyabe 2 kills, 4 blocks.
Same two teams tomorrow, Saturday, at 5:00