Those of us lucky enough to hold season tickets are accustomed to watching the Gophers win, even against highly ranked teams. (I remember well watching our Gophers defeat Penn State & Nebraska on their way to winning National Championships.)
But last night, the Gophs again dropped a very close 4-set match to a very good team. When I say close, the total score was 97-92, and the worst set-loss was 25-21 — and the Gophs led midway through that set.
And the Longhorns are loaded. They missed some serves, as teams that serve aggressively will, but other than that they were almost flawless; I think I counted 2 unforced Longhorn errors in 189 points. Time after time, the Gophs hit balls that looked like they were down – only to see Texas dig them up and convert them to points.
The Gophers had a lot of great saves of their own. Besides being a close match, score-wise, there were lots of long, hard-fought volleys with great plays on both sides. Those of us in attendance got our money’s worth, despite the disappointing outcome.
(Speaking of “in attendance,” it was great to re-connect with our seat-mates L.S. & D.S. And we saw reader R.M. on the jumbo-tron. It was a thrill to be back in the Pav, and it seemed everyone in our section was masked.)
The discouraging thing was that our Gophers, though very competitive with the best team in the country, couldn’t win more than one of four tight sets. That’s a “toughness” this team needs to develop as the season progresses.
The most encouraging thing was another fine performance by Jenna Wenaas. (Samedy was great, as always; we’re used to that.) Wenaas came in highly recruited, but spent her freshman season (last Spring) either on the bench or in the back-row, so we didn’t really get a chance to see what see could do. But another solid game, against a great team, convinces me that Wenaas will be a star. (And if everyone stays healthy, we won’t miss Rollins at all.)
Wenaas’s left-side counterpart, Taylor Landfair, dominated the first half of the first set, recording 6 of her 11 match kills in set 1. She also played 6 rotations most of the night, and held her own despite being targeted by the Texas servers. But Landfair mysteriously disappeared late in the 4th and final set, with the outcome still in doubt, leaving the arena for the locker room. (She returned to the bench for the final few points.) She didn’t seem injured. Does anyone know what happened to her?
Landfair’s departure provided an opportunity for talented freshman Natalie Glenn. But debuting late in a tough match vs the top-rated country was a tough assignment for Glenn.
The other encouraging thing was a strong performance by Middle Katie Myers. Last Spring, Regan Pittman played one of the Middle positions, and Myers, Shea Rubright and Ellie Husemann competed for the other spot, with Rubright sort of emerging toward the end of the season. With Pittman’s departure, and the addition of freshman Anna Wolf, the four are competing for two starting positions – and none have yet to establish themselves as offensive threats. But Myers took the lead in this competition with 3 kills, 3 blocks, and 3 aces. And the 3 aces understates Myers serving; she consistently put the Texas receivers on their heels, resulting in numerous weak returns.
The jury is still out, in my mind at least, on our setter Melani Shaffmaster. Shaffmaster is a talented athlete, possessing some unique skills. And last night she made a play rarely made by D-1 setters; one of our diggers mistakenly bumped the ball just over the net to the Longhorns (an “overpass”), and the Texas hitter was licking her lips as she jumped to crush it – only to have Shaffmaster stuff it back in her face. (Selliger-Swenson never made that play.)
But Shaffmaster isn’t as quick as I would like her to be. She ends up bump-setting passes that quicker setters would get underneath, and doesn’t even reach passes that quicker setters would bump-set. Some of this, of course, is the result of our mediocre passing; which also needs improvement. And we have to remember that Shaffmaster is a sophomore; she’s better now than she was at the beginning of last season, and she will continue to get better. More importantly, she is our setter; if she can’t do it, nobody can.
Finally, a quick note on D.S. Rachel Kilkelly. Coach McCutcheon has always, in his ten years here (can you believe this is his 10th yr, already?) used a Defensive Specialist to play back-row for the weaker passer of our two left-side hitters, and I think Kilkelly remains our D.S. But for the 2nd match in a row, Kilkelly played only sparingly, a brief shift for Landfair and another equally brief shift for Wenaas. Is Kilkelly hurt? Is McCutcheon changing his tactics? Anyone know?
UP NEXT
Two of the Gopher’s first 3 opponents have been top-ten teams, and it doesn’t get much easier next week, as the Gophs travel to Eugene for back-to-back matches with Oregon and Stanford.