The Gophs opened the season with a 5-set loss to Stanford, in Milwaukee, losing Set 5 by 13-15. Then they beat Texas in 5 sets, also in Milwaukee, winning Set 5 by 15-7. And then tonight, they lost to Baylor, at Baylor, losing Set 5 by 14-16. (For the record, we’re 42 to 38 in fifth sets.) No shame in losing in 5 to Stanford, and no shame in losing to unbeaten Baylor, on their home court, either. And every match has been great volleyball.
It was , in several ways, an unusual match. Set-by-set, tonight’s score was 25-23, 16-25, 21-25, 25-17, and 14-6, so, despite the close-as-it-gets match, two of the sets were lopsided . And sideouts were relatively rare, with both teams stringing significant runs. For example;
- In Set 1, we were up 10-5, then down 16-18 and 20-22, before winning 25-22;
- In Set 2, with Wooker stinking it up, we were down 1-8 right away;
- In Set 3, we were up 19-16 before losing 21-25;
- In Set 4, we were up 9-4 almost right away; and
- In Set 5, we were down 4-10, but battled back to earn the first match point opportunity at 15-14.
The individual Gopher performances were even odder:
- Two of our pins continued their strong play. I had Grote with 16 kills, 2 blocks and 2 aces, and Hanson with 15 kills and 2 aces, but Wooker, who started the match (as she has for every match in her career), was benched halfway through Set 2, and replaced by freshman Alex Acevedo. Acevedo seemed not the answer in Sets 2 & 3, but got hot and sparked the lopsided Set 4 victory, finishing the match with 12 kills, playing only roughly 3 sets.
- Minatee, who played well against Texas, continued her run with 11 kills and 4 blocks. But Owoleye was basically invisible; she played the entire match, yet I had her with one kill and one block.
Maybe Wooker and/or Owoleye were ill (Owoleye stayed in the game because we don’t really have a viable third middle). Or maybe not! I thought, going into the season, that Wooker was our #1 Leftside, Hanson the #2, and Acevedo strictly an emergency back-up #3. But Hanson has been the star Left in these first 3 matches, and after tonight, Acevedo looks like #2. And going into the season, I thought Owoleye was marginal and Minatee less than that, but in these first 3 matches, Minatee looks like a star, and Owoleye less than adequate.
In tonight’s 4:00 match, 0 and 3 Wisconsin got their first win, also in 5 sets, vs TCU. Tomorrow, we play TCU at 4:00 (on 18 hours rest) and the Badgers (on 24 hours rest) get Baylor.