Month: February 2021

Both of this weekend’s scheduled matches vs the Michigan Wolverines has been “postponed” due to Covid issues at Michigan. This is not Michigan’s first Covid-related postponement; they have only played 5 matches so far, while the Gophers and most others have played 10.

Officially, the term is “postponed.” Some make-up matches have been played mid-week, and I think that if this match figured to have implications for the conference championship or an NCAA invitation, there would be more pressure to reschedule. But with our Gophers one of the top teams, and Michigan an also-ran, I’m guessing that we will not play Michigan at all this season.

This does not mean that there will not be any Big 10 V-ball worth watching this weekend, as Nebraska, who the Gophs split with last weekend at Lincoln, travel to Madison for Friday-Saturday matches against the #1-rated Badgers. (Both matches on BTN, I think — not sure about the times.) Wisconsin may very well be the best team in the country, setter Hilley and middle Rettke are both spectacular, but they haven’t played Minnesota, Nebraska, Penn State or anyone else really strong. They took both matches from a good Purdue team, at home, the first weekend of the season, but Purdue was missing their best player. We should know more about Wisconsin after this weekend’s matches vs Nebraska.

UP NEXT FOR THE GOPHERS

Next weekend, March 5 & 6, the Gophers are scheduled to travel to Columbus for Friday-Saturday matches against Ohio State. (Both matches scheduled for 5:00, Mpls time, no news yet re TV coverage.) Hard to know what to think about the Buckeyes; they’re unbeaten, so technically ahead of the Gophs, but they’ve played a really soft schedule so far (Rutgers, this weekend), and despite being unbeaten in the country’s strongest conference, they are not nationally ranked.

It is not shocking to think that the Gophers would eventually lose a match, and Lincoln seems a likely spot for it. But surprising that they lost in straight sets, and for Gopher fans, hard to watch. The 3^rd set was competitive, tied often including at 20-20, exactly the type of set we have come to expect the Gophers to win. Except they didn’t.

ROLLINS: The most obvious explanation is that the Gophs were missing junior left-side and 6-rotation player Adanna Rollins. Rollins spent the match on the bench, not dressed for play, with a “non-covid illness.” Through the Gophers’ first 9 matches, Rollins had been occasionally dominant and occasionally a liability, but mostly solid and reliable, an important component of the Gophs’ excellent 9 – 0 start. Maybe more important than we realized.

WENAAS: Rollins was replaced, as one would expect, by freshman Jenna Wenaas. Wenaas arrived as the 3^rd-rated recruit in the country, who until now had seen limited playing time, and most of that subbing into the back row during McGraw’s absence. I had previously speculated that it might be hard to keep a player as highly-regarded as Wenaas happy on the bench for long.

Wenaas passed very well, including 21 serve-receives without an error (arguably better than a typical match by Rollins). Wenaas’s hitting was mediocre, 4 kills and one error in 21 attempts, compared to Rollins’ 20 kills in the 4-set match on Friday. And her serving was horrible, 3 service errors and no aces in 7 attempts.  

It would be easy to ask, “Well, who are our other options at left-side?” But Wenaas is a freshman, playing a critical role in her first collegiate match – against Nebraska at Lincoln. She did not perform as well as Rollins usually does, but we shouldn’t have expected her to. And perhaps the bigger problem was the failure of her teammates to step-up, knowing that they now had 3 freshmen (inc. Landfair and Shaffmaster) in the line up against a quality team that hardly ever loses at home.

WEAKNESSES REVEALED: Flaws that the Gophers have gotten away with in their first 9 matches haunted the Gophers all day:

• 8 service errors (vs 0 aces) in 56 serves;
• Consistently poor (except for Wenaas) serve-receive, making Shaffmaster chase all over the court for the 2^nd touch;
• Poor blocking, especially by our 3 freshman. Wenaas at 6-1, Shaffmaster at 6-3, and Landfair at 6-5, obviously have the height to become great blockers, and I think they will over the next 4 years – but none were effective in this match.
• Trouble covering dinks by the opposing team. I haven’t felt, at any time during the McCutcheon era, that the Gophers as a team were especially good at dinking, or covering dinks. (It has occurred to me that this is philosophical – “If we swing away and the other side dinks, we’re going to win most of our matches.”) But when we’re getting out-served, out-received, out-hit and out-blocked, out-dinked makes everything worse.

OTHER INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES

• Samedy had 12 kills in 37 swings, a productive rate for most mortals, but with an uncharacteristic 7 hitting errors. Maybe she’s not a “morning person.”
• Landfair led the Gopher hitters for the first time (I’m guessing not last) in her career, with 14 kills and 4 errors in 30 swings. She hasn’t figured out how to block Big Ten hitters yet, but she is already, even as a freshman, the best dinker on the team. And with the Gophers, in Rollins’ absence, setting up their serve-receive a bit differently, Landfair was targeted all day by Nebraska servers, and handled herself well.
• BENCH During the horrible 2^nd set, McCutcheon used his double-switch of McMenimen in for Samedy and Miyabe in for Shaffmaster – didn’t hurt, didn’t help. And he played Myers at the “other middle” in the 3^rd set. I didn’t notice Myers having much impact, but the 3^rd set was the closest.  

SPLIT NOT SO BAD Easy to feel discouraged about today’s straight-set disaster. But if someone had told me, before the season started, that the Gophs would be 9 & 1 at this point, after 2 matches at Purdue, 2 matches at home against Penn State, and 2 matches at Lincoln – I’d have been thrilled. If the Gophs can get even a split in our mid-March home-and-home with Wisconsin, and take care of business against Ohio State, I think they are a lock for a top-4 seed in the NCAAs.

UP NEXT: Double matches vs Michigan (Mich off to a slow start) at the Pav; Friday at 4:00 on ESPNU, and Saturday at 4:00 on BTN+. Also on Friday & Saturday next week: Nebraska at Wisconsin, both on BTN. That should be interesting!

The Gophers dropped their first match of the season — in straight sets to Nebraska — without Rollins. Details to follow.

Regarding the new unies unveiled last week, Reader M.C. writes, “I thought they looked really cool!”

Reader G.U. notes that Gopher V-Ball is definitely the best show in town; none of the local basketball or hockey teams get his attention when McCutcheon’s squad is on T.V.

Apart from the occasional column on the subject by Patrick Ruesse (a very good writer), the Star Tribune’s coverage of Gopher V-Ball is mostly by Rachel Blount, including a Saturday morning article about last night’s victory in Lincoln. I don’t get the sense that Blount has a deep history with volleyball, but she does have access to Coach McCutcheon; who seems, based on this morning’s quotes, almost as amazed by this team’s ability to win the close ones as we are.

Star (2 yrs all-conference) left-side hitter of the ’97 & ’98 City Champion South High Tigers turned 40 during the Gophers’ victory over the Huskers!

The #4 ranked Nebraska Huskers has won 13 consecutive matches at home, but the Gophers took them down tonight in 4 sets – on yet another huge night by Samedy, with help from Pittman.

The Gophers dominated the 1^st set, establishing leads of 6-1, 10-4, 15-8 and 22-10 before finishing the Huskers off 25-15, with offense from Samedy, Landfair (mostly dinks, clearly the Gophers best dinker) and Pittman. Plus 2 aces and several great digs from McGraw. And the Gophers also took a 5-1 lead in the 2^nd set. At that point, I started to wonder if Nebraska was over-rated. 

But then the Gophers offense disappeared (Nebraska deserves credit for this). Samedy continued to get a kill now and then, but nobody else could, and Rollins and Landfair were pitiful. But it wasn’t all Rollins and Landfair’s fault; our serve-receive was terrible, and Shaffmaster wasn’t giving our hitters much of a chance. Coach McCutcheon tried the double-switch, benching Shaffmaster in favor of McMenimen, and Samedy in favor of Miyabe. Miyabe got a sideout breaking a Husker run, but the Huskers went on to take the set 25-20.

The Gophers jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the 3^rd set, but the Huskers came back to lead 15-12. Landfair, who played so well last weekend vs Penn State, couldn’t get a kill from her dinks or her power, her blocking was pathetic, and she was eventually benched for Wenaas, who got 1 kill and 1 error. Rollins was a little better. During a Nebraska 8 pt run, the Huskers got consecutive service aces that hit the net and dribbled over, and Shaffmaster got whistled for 2 carries. McCutcheon benched Rubright (who was unproductive all night) in favor of Husemann (her first action the season). But after Nebraska took a 22-19, Samedy took over! And led the Gophers to a 26-24 win.

As they did in every set all night, he Gophers started strong again in the 4^th set, taking a 4-1 lead. But Nebraska came back, and the lead switched several times, Nebraska leading 7-5, and the Gophs leading 13-9. At one point, McCutcheon subbed McMenimen in – directly for Shaffmaster (no double switch involving Miyabe for Samedy this time). And after several ties, Nebraska took a 22-21 lead , before the Gophers finished it off 25-23. Samedy continued to produce, and Landfair got a couple of kills, but more than anything, the difference at the end was Pittman’s blocking (she had a career night, 14 total, maybe) that sealed the match.

INTERESTING CHALLENGE: Nebraska won an interesting challenge on their way to wining the 2^nd set win. A Nebraska back-row attack appeared to be blocked by Rubright, then dug up by Nebraska, but the ref blew the whistle for 4 touches, ruling that the Nebraska attack hadn’t cleared the net – so point Gophs (and no “block” for Rubright). But the video replay showed the ball hitting the tape as it was being blocked by Rubright, so it could have gone over, if not for Rubright. The refs then reversed the call – to a replay, as the ball was still live when the whistle blew. I  thought it was an excellent call; a ball with top-spin can hit the tape and go over. I think this premature whistle is a common mistake that refs make all too often. I say let the volley continue unless you’re certain,

UP NEXT: a rematch vs the Huskers at 11:00 a.m. Sunday morning – might have to miss church for this one.

We know this is a good team. They climbed a ladder, Michigan State at home, Maryland at Maryland, 11^th-ranked Purdue at Purdue, 8^th-ranked Penn State at home; each match more challenging than the previous one – and are 8 & 0! This is an impressive start for a team with two freshmen in the starting-eight (3 of 8 for 7 sets at Purdue).

We know they have the “heart,” confidence, and determination to come from behind. Three of their eight matches have gone 5 sets, and they were down 1-2 in all three of them. And none of their three 5^th-set wins have been close! In these 5^th-sets, when the opposing teams seem to tire, the Gophers appear to have “another gear.”

We know they have the dominant player (Samedy) that championship teams need when the set is on the line. But we also know they have depth; McCutcheon unafraid to use his talented bench, and the bench delivering!

We don’t know, can’t know for certain, how they’ll fare at Nebraska this weekend, if they’ll stay injury-free and covid-free, how the rest of the season will go, or the April NCAAs. But I’m as optimistic as I was before the season started, when I predicted that this team will have a real shot at their first National Championship!

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THESE INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS

SAMEDY is a super-star! A “5-tool,” “6-rotation” player, she was a First-Team All-American last year (2019), and she’s playing even better this year. She not only leads the team in kills, but she dominates (would dominate if such a statistic was kept) in kills when her team is behind or when the score reaches 20. Hard to imagine that she could get even better — but who knows?

PITTMAN is a star, another “5-tool,” All-American. She seems the emotional leader of this year’s team, contributing in multiple ways, and tends to come alive as a blocker at the end of close matches. And lately, against Penn State, she started putting away “slides.” But her overall offensive production is down – understandable playing with a freshman setter, as middle-sets require precise timing. The Gophers have gotten by on the strength of their outside hitters so far, but the timing between Pittman & Shaffmaster needs to improve for a championship run.

ROLLINS, another “6-rotation” player, is a steady and reliable performer. I am fairly certain (the Gopher website stats-page is down today, cold weather?) that she ranks second on the team in season kills. She can’t dink to save her life, but she has a variety of arm-angles and a great “roll-shot” (i.e., an off-speed shot that looks like it going wide, but then drops inside the line).

I’ve been up-and-down on Rollins her whole career, but yesterday’s BTN announcer reminded me that Rollins was the MVP of last year’s Texas Regionals (that got the Gophs to the Final Four).  Shortly after this announcement, with the Gophers struggling in the 2^nd set, Rollins was benched (in favor of Wenaas). She stayed benched through the equally dismal 3^rd set, but came back to record 5 kills in the 4^th set, including at least 2 during the Gophers 8-2 start. Exactly the response you want to see from a veteran benched for a freshman.

McGRAW is the Gophers’ starting libero, so presumably the Gophers are strongest when she is in the lineup. McGraw got injured at the end of the 3^rd set during the first of two matches versus Purdue last weekend, and didn’t play during the second match. She was back in the lineup against Penn State – with two taped hands; unclear if she’s at 100%.

Reader B.W. expressed his thought that the Gophers played better, and received serve better, after McGraw left. (Kilkelly switching to libero, and Wenaas stepping in at D.S.) I can’t say that I saw what B.W. saw, but it is true that the Gophers were 1 & 2 vs Purdue with McGraw in the lineup – and 5 & 2 vs Purdue without.

McGraw. Liberos are most visible, for better or worse, when they’re digging. But with a freshman setter, and not an especially quick one, McGraw has picked up a lot of extra responsibility for setting – and doing well.

KILKELLY did not impress me at the beginning of her freshman year, last season, but did impress me as the season went on. And as mentioned above, the Gophers actually played better when Kilkelly moved up to libero vs Purdue. Was that all Kilkelly? Probably not; but she played well. Serves well, also.

LANDFAIR was the #1 ranked recruit in the country. If you weren’t sure why, you found out yesterday, when she kept the Gophers’ hopes alive during a disappointing (by everyone else) 3^rd-set, contributed significantly to 1^st and 4^th set wins, and dominated the 5^th-set. (Samedy disappeared not so much because she was cold, but because every set was going to the red-hot Landfair.)

She is also a freshman, and that’s been obvious at times as well. She has looked tentative at times, seems afraid to attack an imperfect set, isn’t blocking as effectively as I expect her to once she gets more comfortable, gets targeted by opposing servers (at 6-5, I don’t expect her to ever become a “6-rotation” player), and she’s been benched at least once.

But OMG, the power! She’s still a freshman (for a while longer, anyway), so I don’t imagine she will play as well consistently as she did during yesterday’s 4^th & 5^th sets. But I feel like we saw the real Landfair yesterday, one capable of taking over matches, even against top-flight opponents.

RUBRIGHT seems to be our other (opposite Pittman) middle, for now. A highly-recruited freshman in 2019, Rubright couldn’t crack last year’s line-up (except to block for McMenimen on our serve, on occasion), and she didn’t start this year’s first 4 matches. But with the Gophers struggling during the first Purdue Match, she subbed in for MYERS, and provided offensive spark which helped turn the match around.

Rubright started and played well in the second match against Purdue, and respectably in the first match against Penn St. – she’s a monster on “overpasses.” Then, like Rollins, she was benched (in favor of Myers) during yesterday’s dismal 2^nd and 3rd sets. But she was back in the line-up for the 4^th & 5^th set wins, so I expect to see her in the line-up for the 1^st set at Nebraska. Frankly. our middles were dominated by Penn State this weekend, and Wisconsin’s middles are better than Penn State’s, so we need someone to step up, and Rubright seems the most likely candidate.

SHAFFMASTER is not, as previously noted, the second coming of Seliger-Swenson, but she is, also previously noted, OUR SETTER; and our championship hopes will live or die on Shaffmaster’s development. She has fed her outside hitters well enough to lead the Gophers to an 8 & 0 record against strong teams. She brings an offensive threat to the setter-position like we’ve never seen. (And yesterday’s announcer spoke of Shaffmaster in the same sentence as Wisconsin’s Sidney Hilley, who basically is the second coming of Seliger-Swenson.) Shaffmaster has good hands, and basically sets well when she gets a perfect first pass.

Unfortunately, not every first pass has been perfect, or will they be. Life is full of trade-offs, and while big setters block better than little setters, big setters aren’t as quick. Anticipation is every bit as important as quickness, and I feel like Shaffmaster is anticipating better week by week. And the rest of the team is getting better at helping with balls Shaffmaster can’t reach.

She hasn’t been great at covering dinks either, but getting better I think. (This is particularly a problem in the one half-rotation when McGraw is on the bench; Penn State was dinking us to death in that rotation.) Most disappointing so far has been Shaffmaster’s blocking. With her height, she should be a decent blocker, but so far she hasn’t been. Then again, Landfair hasn’t been blocking great either. Perhaps this is just part of the freshman learning curve, and will improve over time.

But the most important thing for Shaffmaster’s development, and therefore the Gophers’ chances for a Championship, is feeding our middles. That’s not 100% on Shaffmaster; the whole team needs to make better first passes so that Shaffmaster doesn’t have to chase the ball, and Pittman, etc, need to get used to a taller setter. But the Gophers need to generate at least 10% of their offense from their middles.

BENCH: As noted by Reader D.S., the bench is one of the strongest parts of this year’s team. Having watched McCutcheon in the London Olympics, and through his first several years with the Gophers, I wasn’t thinking of McCutcheon as the kind of coach who likes to use his bench. At least not until last year (2019) when he was forced to.

But he never had a bench like this, a bench loaded with players who would start for most D-1 teams. Reader D.S., asked how McCutcheon can keep great players happy on the bench, and that will definitely be an on-going challenge. But already, in 8 matches, in addition to his 8 initial starters, McCutcheon has used 4 players off his bench, McMenimen, Miyabe, Wenaas and Rubright. Not clear yet whether Rubright or Myers is the starter; maybe the competition will push one or both to a higher level. 

I’ve written previously about how much I love Miyabe and the energy she brings. Wenaas played D.S. wonderfully when McGraw got hurt (we might not have won either of the matches against Purdue without Wenaas), and Wenaas, a potential “6-rotation” player, has also subbed in at left-side hitter for both Landfair and Rollins when they were struggling. Same for McMenimen replacing Shaffmaster.

Wenaas didn’t dominate during her brief appearances at left-side, nor McMenimen at setter, but neither did they hurt the team. And when Shaffmaster, Landfair and Rollins came back in, they played better – in some cases dramatically better.

Watching on TV, which I’m stuck with during the pandemic, I’m not sure if Shaffmaster, Landfair and Rollins were 1) benched as a motivation tool, 2) a chance to catch their breath, or 3) for coaching related to a specific technique or strategy. But whatever, this bench is, as Reader D.S. suggests, a major asset. 

Last season (2019) was s struggle (injuries, etc) until the final match of the season at Penn State. The Gophers has been beaten by the Nittany Lions at the Pavilion earlier, and needed a win at State College (I’ve been there, nice town) to earn even a top-8 seed for the NCAAs. A tough assignment since they had not won at State College in modern history. But they won, got the 7^th seed, and made it to the Final Four.

This weekend’s sweep gives McCutcheon a 3-match streak over the legendary Coach Rose (7 National Championships!), and the Gophers’ first 3-match streak over Penn State ever, modern or not. And don’t think that this is an off-year for Rose’s N-Lions, they came into the weekend rated 8 in the country, and they aren’t likely to drop far if at all. (Purdue was rated 13^th when they played the Gophs, and losing a pair of 5-set matches to us raised their rating to 11.)

The box score for Sunday’s victory reveals several anomalies. As one expects, the winning Gophers finished with a slight edge in total points, 98-94. But surprisingly, the losing N-Lions, especially their middles, dominated the Gophers at the net, 14 blocks & 61 kills to the Gophs’ 7 blocks & 56 kills. The Gophs had 10 service Aces to Penn State’s 3, which (statistically at least) offsets the differential in blocks, but still leaves the losing team with more kills.

Even more surprising is that the normally powerful Gophers won the match with a pathetic hitting percentage of .149 (vs .229 for Penn St.). I think the Gophers have lost matches while hitting over .200, and I can’t remember them winning while hitting under .250.

:At #4 ranked Nebraska, Friday, 8:00,* BTN, and Sunday, 11:00, BTN. (* 8:00 on BTN implies a 6:00 game, which implies we may not see the start of the Gophers vs Huskers if the 6:00 game runs long.) Given that the Wisconsin series (mid-March) is home-and-home, this next weekend, on the road against one of the top teams in the country, figures to be the Gophers toughest challenge of the regular season.

For the 3^rd time this season, our 8 & 0 Gophers have trailed 1-2 after 3 sets, and come back to win in 5. (Makes wife Maureen very tense.)

Led by Samedy (surprise, surprise), the Gophs dominated the 1^st set, winning 25-19. With their middles crushing the ball, and the Gophs getting offense only from Samedy, Penn State dominated the 2^nd set, winning 25-16.

Penn State’s middles continued to dominate in the 3^rd set. With Samedy not producing, Coach McCutcheon went to his bench, replacing Rollins with Wenaas and Rubright with Meyers. But unlike his “moves” in the first match against Purdue 9 days ago, it didn’t help. Landfair (on her way to a career-high 22 kills) had a good set, but no one else did.  Penn State 25 -17.

But the Gophers roared back in the 4^th set. Landfair stayed hot, Rollins back in the line up got hot, and Samedy looked like Samedy. Gophers 25-15. At this point, the match stood 2-2, and none of the sets had been close. On Saturday, Samedy played strong all night, but late in the 4^th set, when the set appeared in doubt and a possible 5^th set necessary, it was Pittman who took over. On Sunday, with the deciding 5^th set tied a 7-7, it was Landfair who took over. Gophers 15-10

I’ll have more to say about individual performances, and what we have learned about this squad, after I’ve caught my breath.

Reader L.A. asks, What’s the deal with the Goghers’ sleeveless jerseys? I thought volleyball players always wore long sleeves. And what’s the history behind that?

JOHN: I don’t know what inspired the new look. I assume that Coach McCutcheon allows the players to make team-decisions about uniforms. Volleyball players often wear long sleeves for additional ball control; I insisted on it when I was coaching teenage girls.

Maximum “control” is achieved with open hands, as in an overhand set. A few world-class ball-handlers can do this at their waist, but for most of us, handling a ball below our shoulders with open hands is going to draw a whistle for “catching” the ball. So for most of us, playing a ball below our shoulders without drawing a whistle requires a body part other than open hands.

As a Geezer with minimal body control, I often use a fist or the back of a hand, but the preferred method (that you see watching the Gophs) is to use two upturned forearms forming sort of a cradle – which creates a softer “bump,” and more easily controlled, pass, than what I get with my fist. (If you fail to get your elbows in, the ball will hit bone and likely fly out of bounds.) And long sleeves provide just a slightly softer cradle.

Middles Pittman and Rubright, and left-side hitter Landfair, play only front-row, never back (except that Pittman serves), so they rarely bump. And Shaffmaster is our setter – she’s the last person we want handling the first touch. So these four have little need for long sleeves – and maybe they like to show off their biceps.

The other four, libero McGraw, D.S. Kilkelly, and 6-rotation players Samedy and Rollins, take about 99% of the serve-recieves, and most of the spike-digs as well, bumping hundreds of balls per match. And if you noticed, they all wore long “sleeves” with their “sleeveless” jerseys.

Exactly why? I couldn’t say. A fashion statement? Anyone?