It took 4 sets to get the win, 25-19, 25-22, 24-26, 25-17.
I don’t want to be that guy who wants my team to crush every opponent, and I don’t want to disparage Iowa, though they seem a weak link in the powerful Big Ten. But losing this afternoon’s 3rd set was a reminder of how we lost to Northwestern.
The Gophs appeared intense in Set 1, jumping out to leads of 8-5, 13-9, and 20-13 before coasting to the 25-19 win. I recorded 2 “bad” serve-receive and 1 “ugly” serve-receives. (I’ve switched my categorizations of Gopher serve-receives to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.)
They looked less intense in Set 2, taking a 9-6 lead, falling behind at 13-15, tying it up at 19-19, before winning 25-22. I recorded 2 bad and 2 ugly receives.
In Set 3, they looked to me, from row 14, like a team thinking, “We are so much better than this opponent that we can’t lose.” Our Gophs promptly fell behind 4-9, & 8-13. We pulled ahead at 17-14, and then fell apart to lose 24-26. I recorded 7 bad receives, and 2 uglies. Obviously, not every point surrender is due to insufficient intensity; other teams make good plays and other teams get lucky. (Like the Vikings did in London this morning.) But it is my perception that the Gophers are susceptible to over-confidence.
In Set 4, perhaps shaken up by losing a set to what appears to be the worst team in the Big Ten, the Gophs came out blazing, taking leads of 8-2, 14-8, and 20-9, before coasting home. I recorded 4 bad receives and 1 ugly.
Reader D.S. reports that Coach McCutcheon has publicly said that he expects his teams to develop internal leadership, rather than to depend on the coaching staff. Okay, seems plausible – but they’d better develop some soon.
BACK TO SERVE RECEIVE: It is not at all unusual for the tallest player in a volleyball team’s serve-receive, to be weak link in said serv-receive (I have been), and Taylor Landfair, at 6-5, towers over our other serve-recievers. The Gophs typically employ a 3-person receive, always including McGraw and Wennas, plus either Landfair or Kilkelly. Don’t get me wrong, Landfair is a superb, all-around volleyball player, and a decent passer; but when the choice is Landfair, McGraw or Wennas, Landfair is clearly the weak link. And besides being the weak link, opposing teams want to wear Landfair out by making her dig, so they target her as much as possible.
One reason McCutcheon wants to keep Landfair on the court during her back-row rotations is that she is our only credible back-row attacker. We are now into the third season of feeding back-row sets to Wenaas, and I doubt that her back-row hitting percentage is a plus-number.
One option is to keep everything the same, hoping that Landfair’s passing will improve from good to great, and that Wenaas will become effective on her back-row attacks. But I see another option. I haven’t seen enough of Wooker recieving to feel certain that she is a strong receiver; I don’t see her every in practice like the coaching staff does. But she is clearly a very talented all-around player; and it seems likely that Wooker, 4 inches shorter than Landfair, would be a stronger receiver.
Playing Wooker back-row instead of Landfair would likely take away one of the Gophs offensive weapons (Landfair hitting back-row). But Landfair hitting back-row would become less important if we could start counting on offense from our Middles and our Opposite, And that’s exactly what is developing.
- In the Gophs first ten matches, we got significant offensive productivity from the Right-side only once, Julie Hanson’s 14-kills against Texas (a match not televised in this market). We got next to nothing from Hanson, Crowl or Wenaas in the other nine.
- But in our last 2 matches (admittedly, against Northwestern and Iowa), Wenaas has become an offensive threat. She had 12 kills against Northwestern (I think 10 from the Right-side), and 10 this afternoon against Iowa (9 Right-side). Exactly what the Gophers need.
- And the Gophers suddenly, today, discovered the “slide-attack,” which Regan Pittman and the Tapp Sisters excelled at, but which had gone missing so far this season.
- By my count, The Gopher Middles combined scored 2 “slide-kills” in 4 sets vs Wash St., 2 in 3 sets vs Purdue, 1 in 3 sets vs Wisconsin, and 2 in 5 sets vs Northwestern; in other words, a total of 7 “slide-kills” spread over our last 15 sets.
- But this afternoon, Booth and Gros combined for 11 “slide-kills” in 4 sets. Sure, it was Iowa, but it’s like being in a gun-fight and discovering another gun in your pocket that you didn’t know you had. Again, exactly what the Gophers need.
And yes, I said Gros, as in Naya Gros, who started and tallied a total of 12 kills and 5 blocks – looking like she belonged in the starting line-up, and Carter Booth (5 kills & 9 blocks). Ellie Husemann, who had consistently been one of our starting Middles through the first 11 matches, was on the bench, not displaying any obvious injuries.
Last season, the Gopher carried 4 Middles (for 2 spots on the court), and by the end of the season Husemann established herself as a “starter,” along with Katie Myers. But, honestly, it was more a lack of productivity by the other 2, than spectacular productivity by Husemann. And that had sort of been true to start this season: Booth and Gros had both been erratic (Davis less than that) vs the steady but unspectacular Husemann. But Gros and Booth were both productive. today. I’m guessing they will get the starts on Friday at Ann Arbor, and will continue to start ahead of Husemann as long as they produce.
BTW: Landfair, while struggling a bit with her serve-receives, racked up 25 kills. I had her with 19 Left-side power kills, 3 back-row power kills, and 3 dink-kills. Landfair remains the only remotely effective dinker on the team; Wenaas keeps trying, as do Wooker and Shaffmaster, but all with rare success. Of course Landfair’s dinking success has less to do with her dinking-touch than with the fear she puts into the hearts of the opposing team when she gets a good set.
Landfair remains mostly reluctant to attack an imperfect set. (Wooker will, occasionally with success.) I can’t read Landfair’s mind of course, but it’s almost as if she’s thinking, “I’ll just keep this one in play — and crush the next one.” That worked against Iowa, but “the next one” might not come along against better teams. Landfair does have 35% of the team’s season kills, and an impressive 4.57 kills per set avg.
NEXT UP:
- At Michigan (12 & 2 overall, 3 & 1 Big Ten, they beat Northwestern but nobody good) on Friday, and
- At Michigan State (10 & 5 overall, 1 & 3 Big Ten, including a loss to Rutgers) on Sunday afternoon.