Month: March 2021

The Gophers swept Illinois in 3 sets in Saturday’s rematch, running their record to 11 & 1.

Details to follow. (We’ve got company for dinner.)

(Multiple readers have written to compliment yesterday’s blog re Friday’s match vs Illinois, written in my absence, by the love of my life. I failed to note that in uploading the piece to GopherVBallRocks, I made a few small edits, partly based on data from the official U of M volleyball website. One of my edits was to correct what I thought was an error she made.

The love of my life gave the score of the 5^th set as 15-12, and noted that the final point of the match came on a service error by Illinois. But the Gopher site’s recap of the same 5^th set said that after a kill by Rollins made the score 13-11 lead, the Gophs won the set 15-11 on back-to-back Illini errors. And if the Gophs had gone from a 13-11 lead to a 15-11 victory, these “two errors” had to be attack errors, not service errors. And for some unexplainable reason, I trusted the Gopher site’s account over that of the love of my life.

But as we now know, the real score was 15-12, and the love of my life insists it was a service error! (You’d think a guy married just short of 50 yrs would know better.)

Reader R.A. ask why Samedy sometimes seems to hit from the left side; isn’t she our “left-side hitter?”

JOHN: Good eye R.A. I learned the term “left-side hitter” years ago, but the more modern term is “opposite,” because this player rotates opposite the setter in our 5-1 scheme. (I also use the obsolete term “dink”). “Opposite” is probably a better term because players as good as Samedy can, and do, hit from anywhere they want. (Or the coach wants.) 

When she is in the front row (putting our setter in the back row, giving us 3 front-row hitters) Samedy typically hits right-side. When the setter is front row and Samedy back row, Samedy is still the third hitter, but now from behind the 10 ft line, and more middle than right. They feed her less often in the back row, typically in one of two scenarios: 1. The first pass was poor and whoever is handling the set isn’t confident that they can make a good set to the left-side hitter, so they put the ball super high in the center of the court, assuming that Samedy, wherever she is, will find it; or 2. The Gophers’ two front row hitters are both struggling and the coaching staff signals (between points) the setter to find Samedy.

But there is also one half-rotation, the serve receive when her “legal” position is front-left, where Samedy will hit from the left, at least on the first attack, because it’s difficult for her to get to the right side during the receive. (Maybe they switch if the volley continues. I’d know this if I was at the PAV watching the matches live. If any Reader has picked up on this, let us know.)

Subbing for John, the love of his life and hardcore Volleyball Mom: Maureen

Why ,Gophers, why? Always winning it in the 5^th set? Just want your fans to watch more sets?  Wish I could have been in the Pav for all the excitement!

1^st set – not bad. The Gophers opened with Miyabe at one Middle (opposite Pittman) instead of Rubright, Myer or Huseman, and Miyabe was solid. Rollins, Samedy and Landfair all had 3 kills each. The Gophers didn’t take the lead until 11-10 in the set, and later led 16-15, 22-20, and finished the set 25-20 on a Landfair kill and a Shaffmaster Ace.

2^nd set – AARGH! Illinois jumped to an early lead and won 15-25. Every hit by Illinois seemed to find the floor, and every hit by the Gophers was dug by the Illini’s excellent defense. Our receives were hurting us and their defense rendered our hitting useless. The Gophers seemed confused at times, and Shaffmaster’s setting was off.

3^rd set – More competitive, but still not enough. The set was tied at 7-7, the Gophers later pulled to within 16-17 on a Landfair/Miyabe block, and Samedy, as always the answer when the Gophers are struggling, had a good set. But The Illinois setter seemed more effective at distributing the ball, including multiple quick-sets to her Middles, which we weren’t seeing from Shaffmaster. The Gophs got to within 20-22, but 3 consecutive Illinois kills put the set away 20-25.

4^th set – Much better! Samedy continued to crush the ball, and, suddenly, the Gopher blockers, especially Miyabe, but also Landfair, Rollins, Samedy and Pittman, shut down the Illini hitters. The Gophs led 10-7, 14-8, 19-13 and 23-18 on the way to a 25-20 win. Only the serving of Illinois’ Libero, Cooper (the Big 10 leader in aces), kept the Illini in the set.

5^th Set – WHEW! Samedy was reliable as always, but it was  Shaffmaster who really stepped up with 2 kills (6 for the match, both left-handed and right-handed), 3 blocks and 3 aces, in addition to her effective setting to Samedy and Rollins, and one smooth “slide” to Pittman. The Illini diggers made it really hard to put a ball away, and kept the set close. But after the Gophs took a 13-11 lead, the Illinois hitters seemed to choke, and 2 Illinois errors gave the Gophs a 15-11 5^th set victory.

Final stats: Samady: 18 kills, 4 blocks, Rollins 14 kills, 3 blocks, Landfair 10 kills, 3 blocks, Pittman 5 kills, 9 blocks and Miyabe 2 kills, 4 blocks.

Same two teams tomorrow, Saturday, at 5:00

As of now (Thursday a.m.), the Gopher’s matches vs Illinois at the PAV are on for tomorrow (6:00 p.m.) and Saturday (5:00 p.m.), both on BTN+ and Fox 9 +. As mentioned here on numerous occasions, you have to purchase BTN+; I don’t remember what Fox 9 + is. (If anyone knows, please share it with us.) Everything during this pandemic is always tentative, so I guess something could still happen to disrupt this weekend’s matches, but I assume that the Illini are in transit by now, so I think any questions would have been resolved, and the matches will be played as scheduled.

I don’t know if the Gophers will be at full strength. Rollins missed the last match (the Gophers’ only loss of the season) at Nebraska due to a “non-covid illness,” but that was 3 weeks ago, so I assume she would be healthy by now. Last week’s matches vs Ohio State were postponed due to covid issues within the MN program, so possibly there may be some players still on quarantine, and I don’t know how the covid issues impacted their opportunity for practice. The Gophers could be rusty.

Illinois comes in at an unimpressive 2 & 8, but they’ve had a horrible first-half schedule. Their 8 losses have been two each to #1-Ranked Wisconsin (in straight sets), #8-Ranked (at the time, #12 now) Penn State (in 4 sets & 5 sets), #11-Ranked Ohio State (in 4 sets & 5 sets), and #4-Ranked Nebraska (in straight sets). Illinois could end up a Sweet 16 team despite their early record, and a victory over the Gophers would significantly increase their chances of an NCAA invite.

I will not be able to watch Friday’s match, as my Geezer Volleyball match has been rescheduled to basically the same time as the Gophers are playing. Reports from any reader who does watch are welcome.

For the 2nd weekend in a row, the Gopher matches, this time vs Ohio State, are off due to covid. This time seems more ominous. Last week’s matches vs Michigan were reportedly “postponed” due to covid-issues with the Michigan Team, but this weeks problems are with the Gophers. And last week’s announcement said the matches would be rescheduled, but this week’s announcement says the matches may be rescheduled.

Investigative journalism by yours truly has discovered that “The Big Ten” has 14 teams! But when it comes to Women’s Volleyball, it makes more sense to talk about “The Big Six” (especially given that the conference itself seems casual about math). These nationally-ranked teams include #1-ranked Wisconsin, #4-ranked Nebraska, #5-ranked Minnesota, #10-ranked Penn State, #11-ranked Purdue and #19-ranked Ohio State.

In the Big Ten (or 14), our Gophers are in third place:

                             W           L

Ohio State           11           0

Wisconsin           10           0

Minnesota            9            1

Nebraska              7            1

Purdue                  8            4

Penn State            4            3

But I thought it might be interesting to look at how these teams are doing in the theoretical Big Six (really, no more theoretical than the Big Ten), where the Gophers are, arguably, in first place:

                             W           L

Minnesota            5            1

Wisconsin            2            0

Ohio State            1            0

Nebraska              1            1

Penn State           0            3

Purdue                  0            4

• The Gophers swept Penn State & Purdue, and split with Nebraska.
• The Badgers swept Purdue (the first weekend of the season, with Purdue’s best player out of the line-up.)
• Penn State lost, in 5 sets, in Columbus, on Feb 17. The rematch is scheduled for March 3, in State College.
• Last weekend’s matches featuring the Huskers at Madison were postponed due to Covid.

UP NEXT

Gophers vs First Place (in the Big 10) Ohio State at Ohio State, 5:00 Friday and Saturday, both matches on BTN+

Next week’s matches, at home vs Illinois, should be on Channel 9.