I don’t like the Badgers, and I don’t like losing to them, so I hate to admit this — but the Badgers are pretty good. We lost 21-25, 25-22, 15-25 & 23-25. Obviously the Badgers were the better team – at least this afternoon. They lost some early matches, to very good teams – but their best player is their freshman Opposite, from Puerto Rico, who hadn’t even arrived on campus yet. They look like a possible Final Four contender.
The Gophers hit only .187 for the match, and committed 16 service errors vs 5 aces (1 of the aces by sub Blazkova during mop-up duty at the end of our disastrous Set 3). Not likely to win many matches hitting .187 and committing 3 or 4 service errors to every ace. And yet, I will argue that the Gophers played well, maybe the best this 2026 squad has played yet – againist definitely the best team they’ve played.
Here’s why I say the Gophers played well:
- We won a set against the #6 team in the country, and two of the sets we lost were close and could have gone either way. They didn’t; the Badgers were better at the end of those sets.
- The Badgers only hit .241, and had 14 service errors vs 7 aces. This was not because both teams were weak on offense and bad at serving. It was because both teams were really good on defense, and on serve-receive. Hitters and servers from both teams repeatedly crushed balls that ricocheted off receivers or blockers and well out-of-bounds, or high in the rafters – only to see a defender make a miraculous save. Except for the outcome, it was great volleyball.
- I had the Gophers with 10 blocks, the two freshmen, Crossen & Hoecke leading the way – but probably two or three times that many that were dug up by the Badgers.
- Our Gophers had a handful of poor receives, especially Crossen, playing her first match vs an opponent of this caliber, and a couple of mis-communications – but probably two handfuls of amazing digs. I thought our Libero-corps (Palabiyik, Garr & Thibault) played great.
One season-long frustration that continued this afternoon was the propensity of the Gopher hitters to dink. Wooker gets a fair number of kills off dinks (two against the Badgers) for a couple of reasons: 1) her raw power (3 back-row kills against the Badgers) puts opponents on their heels; and 2) Wooker’s good at dinking. Our other hitters are rarely successful, and even Wooker seems to dink excessively. Reader Ross, who sits in front of me at the Pav, helped me realize that most of our dink-attempts are caused by poor sets – specifically sets that seem too low, throwing off our hitter’s timing – leaving a dink their only option to get the ball over the net..
It could be that Stella just isn’t that good – but I have a different theory. Ross isn’t ready to buy it, but here it is:
- I think Coach Cook wants the Gophs to employ a higher-tempo offense than what Coach McCutcheon ran, and he is coaching Stella to make flatter sets. So Stella is deliberately setting flatter sets (as directed). But our hitters haven’t yet adjusted to the flatter sets.
- Why, one might ask, would Coach want Stella to deliver flatter sets? Don’t hitters like high sets?
- Of course they do, especially if that’s what they’ve grown up with. But blockers love them too. Flatter sets are quicker sets – they make it harder for the hitter – and harder for the blockers and diggers.
- In theory, hitters and setters can practice the flatter sets, eventually getting good at them – but it’s much harder for blockers and diggers to practice defending against flatter sets.
- And climbing the ladder, from a Sweet Sixteen team to a Final Four Team, requires getting out in front of the trend toward flatter sets.
If my theory is right, the Gopher hitters will catch up with Stella as the season progresses.
Individual Performances:
- Wooker continues to lead the team in kills, 14 vs the Badgers, including 3 from the back-row. (Would have been more if not for the Badger’s incredible digging.) But too many errors, and consequently a poor .120.
- The freshman Crossen contributed 10 kills, with barely any errors so a .421, plus 3 blocks.
- Kinney had 8 kills, but only .091.
- Taylor continued her offensive resurgence with 7 kills, and .500. (Middles usually have higher hitting percentages.)
- And as previously mentioned, Palabiyik, Garr & Thibault played well.
Miscellaneous:
- One of Hoecke’s two aces was for set-point in Set 2.
- The Gopher fed a back-row set to our D.S., McKenna Garr. The Badgers handled this attack by Garr, but I hadn’t seen that before. I wonder if we’ll see more of this?
- The rules on “throwing” a ball over the net have loosened up over the years. It is now legal to “follow through” with an open hand. But you are still required, as I understand the rules, to initiate contact at the top of your vertical reach. You aren’t supposed to be able to catch the ball below the top of the net and throw a basketball-style hook-shot. Yet that was exactly what Wisconsin setter Charlie Fuerbringer did on all 6 of her kills – with nary a whistle. I don’t get it.
- I think there were 5 times when a Badger hitter had hit a ball out of bounds, and the ref awarded the Gophers a point – only to have the Badgers challenge that a Gopher blocker had touched the ball as it crossed the net. And they won every touch-challenge. They don’t show such replays at the Pav, so I am in no position to argue this one. But Fuerbringer’s 6 kills and the Badger 5 challenges threw 11 points to the Badgers that could have been 11 points for the Gophers – which could have changed the outcome of the match.
NEXT UP:
- Friday, Oct 9, 6:00, at Rutgers, on BTN+
- Sunday, Oct 11, 3:00 at Ohio State, on BTN
Neither team is ranked, but the 2026 Gophers have yet to win a road match. So keep your fingers crossed.