Reader R.A. writes: Coach McCutcheon, asked about serving issues, said he wanted players to “serve hard,” not “just get it in” and to aim at spots. My thought is the most effective serving comes from McGraw, Shaffmaster and even Kilkelly, more stylized and changed directions. McCutcheon had been replacing Wenaas with McGhie, though now Wenaas serves, but no longer her sky-high shots into the net.
Sitting in student section for WSU, the main (not sole) improvement I noticed was ALL the players hit their kills hard, even Landfair. It seemed this tailed off in the 3rd (losing) set, but then picked up again in the 4th. Booth was great. Husemann seemed off in her timing with sets, which resulted in balls off the side of her hand, some of which surprised WSU. And John is right, McKenna Wucherer has been sterling, by far the most aggressive player on the court. Too bad she comes out when it’s her serve because she was also good in the back row.
JOHN: If I was coaching the Gophers, I would coach them to serve “aggressively,” which is not exactly the same as “hard,”(but maybe what McCutcheon meant), especially against strong teams.. And serving “aggressively” increases the risk of, and ultimately over 4 or 5 sets, the number of, service errors. As mentioned a few days ago, Stanford made 23 service errors while beating Nebraska, in 4 sets, in Lincoln! I didn’t see the match, but I’m guessing that Stanford was serving “aggressively” all night, and that this kept the Huskers out of system. Ultimately, it’s a question of playing to win vs playing to not lose. Admittedly, Wenaas had not been gaining this advantage with her jump-serves, which is why she has discontinued this – at least for now.
McKenna Wucherer is going to be a great addition to this team, and I assume that she will be playing back-row, and probably serving, before long. This week she went from on the bench with her foot in a boot — to our starting Left-side Hitter; I’m guessing that maybe McCutcheon wanted to “ease her in” a bit.