If the ‘25 Gophs are as good as I want them to be, as good as I think they could be 3 months from now, they should have and would have swept all 9 sets this weekend versus the likes of Cal Poly, Ball State and cross-town rival St. Thomas. But they didn’t. They came out slow and lost Set 1 to the Mustangs on Friday, and they let Set 3 get away against the Tommies today – before holding on to win in four, 25-22, 25-20, 23-25, and 25-18.
St. Thomas is not a bad team, their roster is full of girls who were stars in Twin Cities high schools, and the day might come when they have the talent to beat a Big Ten Team. But that’s in the future. Inspired as they might have been, there is no good reason that this determined Tommie squad should have taken even one set from this Gopher Squad.
I’ll post some thoughts later regarding the ongoing battles, but for now, just a quick summary of today’s highlights:
- Hanson led the team in kills, with 18, 4 of them back-row;
- Kinney, getting the start in front of Acevedo, contributed 11 kills;
- Acevedo, who didn’t play in Sets 1 or 2, and barely played in the Set 3 debacle, played Set 4 without attracting much attention until she rotated to serve with the Gophs stumbling along at 10-7, and put the Tommies out of their misery with a 6-point serve-run which included 3 Aces.
- A back-row “six-pack” from Hanson, i.e., a ball hit so hard that a would-be digger couldn’t react quick enough and took it in the face. Ouch!
Today’s lowlights included:
- Multiple examples (at least 6) of timing problems between Stella* and her Middles, ball set too high, or too late, too early;
- Stella committing 3 service errors – for the second match in a row,
* Reader D.S. reports that Stella was spoken to by a member of the coaching staff when exiting the court after one of these mistakes – and seemed unhappy about what was said.
But the biggest concern in my mind as I left the Pav was a serious left-leg injury to our Libero Zeynep Palabiyik, late in Set 3, as she dove for a save at the edge of the playing surface and crashed into the bleachers. Palabiyik was helped to the locker room and wasn’t seen again. As usual, there is no information on her condition; I sure hope she’s okay.
I missed it, but in the preliminary match today at the Pav, Cal-Poly beat Ball State in a 5-set thriller, 26-28. 23-25, 27-25, 26-24, 15-11. Wish I had seen it.
Next up for the Gophers:
- At Vanderbilt, Friday, Sept 5, 7:00 on SEC Plus
- Lipscome, At Vanderbilt, Saturday, 6:00 on ESPN Plus
Next up for GopherVBRocks:
- More of my thoughts (others, maybe?) regarding the ‘25 depth chart.