Month: October 2023

The dream of competing for the Big Ten Title, much less winning it, died two weeks ago on that disastrous East Coast trip. (See my take, below, on last night’s match between the two teams that are competing for the title.) The dream now is to make the NCAA Tournament – and advance to the Sweet 16. But we have to make the Tournament before we can worry about the Sweet 16. This afternoon’s win over Michigan State, 25-15, 23-25, 25-16, 25-20, ran the Gophs conference record to 6 & 4, and puts us in a tie for 5th at the halfway mark. The second half of the schedule looks tougher than the first half, so it won’t be easy. But if the Gophs could win half of their last 10 matches, to finish 11 & 9, in the nation’s toughest conference, we should get invited.

On the drive to the Pav this afternoon, I wasn’t certain we would even beat Michigan State, who entered the match with an identical conference record, vs comparable opponents.. Nor was I confident, halfway through Set 4, when we led 2 sets to 1, but trailed 13-18. But then Kylie Murr’s serving and absolutely fearless digging turned the set, and the match around, putting the Gophs ahead 22-19, from whence we coasted to match-point. I wrote, pre-season, that we were going to love Murr, and she proved me right today.

• Set 1: The Gophers have made a habit out of starting slow – but not today. We started strong, establishing leads of 7-1, 11-4, & 16-5 before coasting to the win. The Spartans, knowing that serve-receive is the Gophs greatest weakness, came in serving aggressively – and missed a ton of them. The highlight was consecutive back-set assists by Landfair.
• Set 2: Though closer, at 10-6, 17-14, & 20-17, the Gophers appeared to be in control – until the wheels fell off, turning the 20-17 lead into a 22-24 deficit, from which we did not recover. Disasters in this 2-7 run included 2 hopeless dinks by Wooker, two bad sets by Shaffmaster, and two lost challenges by Coach Cook – leaving the Gophs without challenges for the rest of the match!
• The Gophers regained their poise in Set 3, taking leads of 8-4, 14-8, & 19-12 on the way to the convincing 25-16 win. Wooker and Landfair got hot in Set 3 (I had them with 17 & 13 kills respectively, for the match, and Davis was blocking. The Gophs had their first service-error of the match late in Set 3 (by McGhie) but it didn’t hurt us at all. I had the Gophs with 9 aces (4 by Grote) and only 2 errors for the match – by far their best serving of the season.
• Set 4 was a struggle, and I thought we were going to a 5th set. Coach Cook surprised me by starting Lauren Crowl, who I think of as our 3rd-string Opposite (after Grote & Hanson), and not having any challenges appeared to cost the Gophs a couple of points. Until Murr willed the Gophs into the lead. It didn’t hurt that the Spartans used and lost 2 challenges during the Gophers late spurt, both of which looked 50-50 to me. Then Grote subbed in to serve for Crowl, and got her 4th ace.

#1 BADGERS DOMINATE #2 HUSKERS, YET HUSKERS IN 5

The overpowering Badger front line (Franklin, Robinson, Thomas-Allara, Booth and Shmek) completely dominated the net, out-thitting the Huskers .217 to .130, and out-blocking them 18 to 7. (I think the Huskers were playing without their biggest and baddest frontline player, who had rolled her ankle in a recent match.) And yet, the home-court Huskers took the match 25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 26-24 & 15-13 (total score: Visiting Badgers 109 to 103). The Huskers hitting % was so poor because they kept blasting their hits 20 ft out-of-bounds in an effort to get them past the dominating Badger blockers. 

So how did the Huskers win? With a near flawless serve-receive, brilliant digging, a quick-tempo offense and back-row attacks, both of which minimized the Badger blocking. Congratulations to the Huskers; but if these same two teams meet in the NCAAs, my money’s on the Badgers.

The Gophers will attempt to employ these same strategies in Madison next Sunday, especially the back-row attacks. Unfortunately,  flawless serve-receiving by the Gophers is unimaginable, and the quick-tempo offense, which the Gophers try to use, relies on great passing. The Gophers Outside Hitters are actually a little stronger than those of the Huskers, but passing well enough to win in Madison will require a miracle.

RECRUITING

Several Gopher recruits, or recruiting targets, attended the Northwestern Match on Oct 15. (Fortunately, we won that one.)  

Class of ‘24 Formally Committed Recruits (keep in mind that our formally committed Libero in the Class of ‘23 changed her mind when McCutcheon stepped down, and went to Nebraska instead, so “committed” is a flexible concept) include sisters Stella and Olivia Swenson from Minnetonka. They are both sisters (half-sisters?) of 3-time All American Samantha Seliger-Swenson. (and there’s another Swenson in the Class of 26.) I had the opportunity to watch Stella and Olivia in the 2021 and 2022 State HS Tournaments, and hope to see them again next month.

• Stella is a 6-1 Setter. To my eye, she looks a lot like Samantha at the same stage of their careers (I saw SSS in HS also). In other words, she is the real deal. Shaffmaster is currently a senior, and under normal circumstances would be out of eligibility at the end of this season, and presumably, McCutcheon’s plan was for Stella to slide in as Shaffmaster slid out. But thanks to covid, Shaffmaster has another year of eligibility, if she chooses to use it. If Shaffmaster does exercise her bonus year, and Stella follows through with her commitment, the Gophers will have some interesting options next year.
• Olivia is a 6-3, Outside Hitter. And, no surprise here, she also passes well. Olivia’s hitting did not impress me as much, in my limited observations, as Stella’s setting. But that’s apples and oranges. Olivia may have the potential to become a D1 star, but I am not prepared to say that. Clearly, we were able to recruit Stella and Olivia, at least in part, as a “package deal,” and because big-sis Samantha had a great experience playing for McCutcheon. I’m guessing that either one would withdraw their commitment without the other.

Maybe there are other Class of ‘24 recruits lined up, but I cannot find anything about them, which is troubling. Maybe someone on GopherVBallRocks knows something I don’t?  It will be great to have the Swenson Sisters, but we need Liberos and Middles if we want to be competitive next year.

Class of ‘25 INformally Committed Recruits (my understanding is that the first 4 have verbally committed, but cannot sign the paperwork until after the conclusion of their Junior Season – next month?) include:

• Jordan Taylor, a 6-5 Middle from Langham Creek HS in the Houston area. She looks good in the highlight reel available on-line – but she playing opposite shorter girls. The highlight reel shows her hitting mostly right-handed, but once left-handed – that’s impressive.
• McKenna Garr, a Libero, from Rush City, was voted (by somebody) the Top H.S. Libero in Minnesota in 2022, when she was a sophomore, and is currently rated the Class of ‘25’s #3 overall recruit in MN. The highlight reel shows her doing what Liberos are supposed to do.
• Carly Gilk, a 6-2, left-handed, Opposite from Champlin Park, is rated the Class of ‘25’s #2 overall recruit in MN. The highlight reel shows her being very effective from the back row. And
• Kelly Kenney, a 6-2 right-handed, Opposite from King’s Academy HS in West Palm Beach, FL. 

Class of ‘25 non-committed Recruit Abigail Mullen, a 6-3 Opposite, from the Kansas City area, was also at the Pav for the Northwestern Match. Mullen, like Landfair and Wooker before her, is the #1 rated recruit in the country, and is being recruited by many top teams, including UCLA, Stanford, and Nebraska, among others. The Gophers’ connection, and likely the reason she accepted the invite, is that Coach Cook coached Mullen on last year’s U-17 National Team. It seems odd, to me, to recruit three Opposites in the same recruiting class, but I’m guessing we’d take Mullen in a heart-beat if we can sign her..

Our Gophers swept the Scarlet Knights, 25-23, 25-17, 25-9. As the scores suggest, Rutgers was competitive in Set 1, less so in Set 2, and seemingly eager to get to their hotel in Set 3. The Gopher hitters (Landfair, Wooker, Hanson, and Davis) pounded the ball all night, but –

In Set 1, Rutgers blocked well and dug really well, getting a lot of balls, that looked like they were down, back over the net. With the Gophs leading 12-7, Rutgers went on a run behind strong serving from fifth-year senior Setter Alyssa Nayar, and strong hitting by red-shirt sophomore Outside Hitter Alissa Kinkela (who led the match in kills), to pull ahead 17-19. But after a sideout, on a Shaffmaster kill, Landfair served well-enough to take Rutgers out-of-system, and the Gophs took back the lead, 22-19. Then, at 24-23, Shaffmaster got her 2nd kill of the set (she finished with 5 kills for the match) to finish it off. 

With Nayar serving to start Set 2, Rutgers jumped out to a 1-5 lead. But it was all Gophers after that. Coach Cook subbed Hanson in for Grote late in Set 1. This surprised me, as Set 1 was still much in doubt, but Hanson played well the rest of the match; I especially liked her serving (Grote serves well also). By Set 3, the Gophers on the court included Minatee, for Owoleye, and McGhie and Crowl in a 6-2. As far as I could tell, Grote was healthy and available when Cook went to Hanson. Not sure, but my best guess is that Hanson has worked hard all season and Coach decided she deserved to play – against a team the Gophers should have swept.

But we lost to Rutgers two weeks ago in Piscataway; the Gophers are the “1” in Rutgers 1 & 7 record (now 1 & 8). How did we lose that match? Anything I say will sound like an excuse, but here goes:

• I have to assume that Rutgers, like most teams, plays better at home;
• The Gopher loss to Rutgers came on the 2nd night of a back-to-back, including a 3 hour bus ride following a 5-set loss to Maryland (another team we should have beaten);
• Shaffmaster did not play at all against Maryland (some sort of illness), and did not play in Set 1 against Rutgers that night. We played a 6-2 in Set 2, with Shaffmaster sharing the setting duties with McGhie. We lost both sets. Shaffmaster played fulltime in Set 3, which the Gophs won decisively (behind Grote’s hitting) 25-16. Shaffmaster played fulltime in Set 4 also, but the roof fell in. Perhaps the Gophs, not accustomed to playing back-to-back, and/or Shaffmaster, not 100% healthy, ran out of gas. 
• There are multiple GopherVBallRocks readers who remain skeptical of Shaffmaster, even in her 4th season as our setter, but as I said before the season began, Shaffmaster (2nd to Murr, of course) is the least “replaceable” member of this team. And, in my opinion, Shaffmaster is a “clutch” player, who plays her best when the set is on the line, her 2 kills late in Set 1 tonight an example.

SUNDAY: 2:00, MICHIGAN STATE AT THE PAV.

Michigan State is 5 & 4 in the Big Ten, as are the Gophs. The Spartans record resembles that of the Gophs in that they swept Michigan home & home, and lost to Northwestern at home, and Nebraska at Lincoln. But another of their losses was to unbeaten Nebraska,, and they won at Rutgers, where the Gophers lost. The Gophers are not the obviously better team.

Gophers over Wildcats in five sets,, 25-14, 15-25, 25-27, 25-22, 15-12, composite score, our #24 ranked Gophers 105, unranked Northwestern 100.

In Maureen’s absence. daughter (and former H.S. VBall star) Phoebe was with me today, her first time at the Pav this season. Phoebe does not follow GopherVBallRocks (go figure?), so on the way there she quizzed me about the squad. I told her, as I written here, that the Gophs have 5 very good players, but a terrible serve-receive. I also told her they start slow in Set 1.

Set 1: The Wildcats apparently do not read GopherVBallRock either, so they served lollipops; no aces, no receiving errors by the Gophs (causing Phoebe to disbelieve me), leading to total domination at the net by Landfair, Wooker & Grote.

Set 2 began in a similar manner, leading to a “comfortable 14-10 lead for the Gophs. Then, after gaining a side-out, the ‘Cat’s outstanding, 6-5, (same height as Landfair but significantly broader of shoulder), grad-transfer (from Santa Clara) leftside hitter Julia Sangiacomo, rotated to serve, and picked mercilessly on Landfair and Wooker, to run out the set!

Many of us in Section 110 were less shocked by the Gophers’ serve-receive failures than by Coach Cook’s failure to respond. (Grote was on the bench in this rotation, so after several Northwestern points, Cook subbed Grote back in for Hanson; but Hanson hides behind our Murr/Landfair/Wooker receiving corps, and Hnason did also – a completely irrelevant substitution.) More about this below.

Set 3 began with promise; the Gophs jumped out to a 9-1 lead, with Davis and Owoleye contributing. Even better, when the Wildcats got a couple sideouts and Sangiacomo rotated to serve, she missed it; Gophs up 13-5; and an easy victory to eliminate the bad taste of Set 1. Until the rest of the Wildcats started serving aggressively at Landfair & Wooker. The ‘Cats won 16 of the next 21 points for a 18-21 lead. The Gophs recovered enough to reach OT, but lost 25-27. The mood in Section 110 was grim.

At least initially, Set 4 provided little hope as the Gophs fell behind 4-7, 6-10, and 10-13. Then, with Shaffmaster serving and Grote back in the front row, the Gophers came alive, turning the 10-13 deficit into a 15-13 lead. The back half of  Set 4 included some thrillingly-long points, and surprisingly effective net-play by Davis & Owoleye, but the two teams basically traded sideouts until the Gophs won 25-22.

The Gophers started strong in Set 5 (as they had in Sets 1 & 3), taking leads of 6-2 & 8-4. But Northwestern, unwilling to quit, roared back to reach a 10-10 tie. We were up 12-11, with Landfair serving, but Sangiacomo, who by then had 24 kills for the match, was just one sideout from rotating to serve. We got 1, to lead 13-11, but then Northwestern got the sideout (13-12) and handed the ball to Sangiacomo. Who served out, 14-12 Gophs. Then Shaffmaster got a block (Shaffmaster had a critical block late in Set 4 also), for match point.

The offense was balanced. Landfair had 15 kills, Grote 14 (along with 5 aces, a couple at critical times), Wooker 10, Davis 5 (in only 8 attempts), Owoleye 4, Shaffmaster & Hanson 2 each. Hanson’s kills both came in Set 1, the Gophers’ best set; but I don’t believe she saw the court in Sets 4 & 5.

Which brings me back to coaching. Maybe Grote digs better than Hanson, and she did get 4 back-row kills in 3 sets, versus Hanson’s 2 in 2 sets. But since neither Grote or Hanson is allowed to touch a serve, this seems irrelevant to the Gophers real problem. 

The other surprising coaching move was to have Palabiyik sub-in for Wooker, and then back out again for Wooker to receive. I find this weird in two ways: 1) For the season, Wooker, the team’s only real-aggressive server, has 9 kills and 50 errors; Palabiyik has 6 kills and 6 errors. Obviously, Palabiyik’s kill-to-error ratio is better than Wooker’s; but Wooker’s aggressive serving does take opponents out of system (when she get it in), and at least a couple of Palabiyik’s errors have come at the worst possible times. And, 2) Wooker’s more important weakness is her serve-receive. We haven’t seen enough of Palabiyik’s receiving to know whether she is better than Wooker or not, but Palabiyik is here to play Libero (next year maybe), so she should be.

More mysterious yet is why Cook allowed Sangiacomo to serve 13 consecutive points in Set 2 without making adjustments. When I played bar-league vball, and when Phoebe played H.S. vball, both teams followed the same rule: two failed receives in a row and we changed the personnel. Sub someone in if necessary, or let Hanson or Grote or maybe Davis receive? Do something!

GopherVBallRocks reader D.S. has a theory: Landfair & Wooker, both outstanding hitters (when they get a good set) each have 2 more years of potential eligibility to play for the Gophers. But, in the Portal Era, these talented players could play anywhere they want. and like most great players, they want to stay on the court for all 6 rotations. And if Cook doesn’t let them receive, maybe they’re wearing a different uniform next year? I don’t know; but it’s as good a theory as any.

I am not at all certain that the Gophers deserve a top-25 ranking, but they went into the weekend at #24, and since they went 2 & 0 for the weekend, I predict they will hold on another week.

NEXT UP:

• Rutgers, who we just lost to in 4 sets in Piscataway, on Friday, 7:00, at the Pav, BTN+; and
• Michigan State, a squad with a 4 & 4 Big Ten record (identical to the Gophs’) on Sunday, 2:00, at the Pav, BTN+.

We need to win both!  

I have lost count how many of my predictions regarding the ‘23 Gophers have been wrong, but the latest was my post following last Saturday’s debacle at Rutgers, when I predicted that this team would no longer be rated in the Top 25 nationally this week, or likely ever again this season.

But somehow, with an overall record of 6 & 8, we are #24. I agree that those voting for this poll shouldn’t penalize good teams for losses at Florida, Stanford or Nebraska, but keeping the Gophs at #24 after losses to Maryland and Rutgers is mystifying. 

Michigan is apparently worse. As we have seen in most matches this season, the Gophers started slow in Set 1 (our powerful outside hitters had only 7 kills). never trailing but squeaking out a 26-24 win. Our hitters came alive in Set 2, (14 kills), jumping out to a 16-8 lead, and coasting to a decisive 25-11 win. And the Gopher momentum carried on into Set 3, taking a 9-3 lead and finishing Michigan off 25-16.

Shaffmaster was back, and apparently healthy, so that helped. I had Grote with 11 kills, Landfair with 10, and Wooker with 9. Shaffmaster only had 3 kills, and 1 block, but her block and 2 of her kills came in Set 1, when the Gophers needed them most.

Some GopherVBallRocks readers, including wife Maureen, really hate service errors. I have consistently defended the strategy of aggressive serving, even though this raises the rate of service errors. But I have also made the point that the timing & score matters; serve aggressively when behind, the further behind, the more aggressive, to try to capture momentum, but conservatively when ahead or on a “run;” when you have the momentum, don’t give it away. In tonight’s Set 1, leading 24-23, Skylar Gray came in to serve, and missed it. Wrong time for that. And I think this was the third time in recent weeks that Gray has missed a serve in a similar situation. Whatever, Coach Cook used Palabiyik in that role in Sets 2 & 3. 

The only explanation I can offer, for the Gophers remaining in the Top 25, with a 6 & 8 record, is that the poll-voters are looking at the individuals on the roster – versus the team’s performance. We have 5 outstanding players (alphabetically): Grote, Landfair, Murr, Shaffmaster & Wooker, anyone of which, or even all 5 together, would potentially not be over their heads in this year’s Final Four. But an elite team has to have an at least competitive serve-receive. This team does not have a competitive serve-receive; and without one, it doesn’t matter how good those 5 are.

BUT, if they can beat Northwestern at the PAV on Sunday, to reach 8 & 8, the Gophers should remain in the Top 25 for at least one more week.

Not the good ones, unfortunately. Not the historic streak of beating mediocre teams at an impressive rate, or this season’s streak of splitting the weekends, certainly not the streak of competing for the Big 10 Title, or  being ranked in the top 25 nationally. And likely, unless some sort of miracle occurs, not the streak of participating in the NCAAs in 23 of the past 24 years. (McCutcheon’s 2014 squad failed to make the Tournament.)

The streaks that continued this evening in Piscataway were the recent streak of losing to teams an elite team would beat, the streak of under-performing, and the streak of futility in delivering hittable balls to our Talented Outside Hitters. Rutgers in 4 sets, 20-25, 22-25, 25-16, 14-25.

Some readers might be skeptical of my reference to “Talented Outside Hitters,” but I continue to believe that the trio of Landfair, Wooker and Grote, solely in terms of their offensive skills, are probably the best trio of Outside Hitters in the country. They don’t look like it – because we can’t get them the ball. Melani Shaffmaster is no Samantha Seliger-Swenson, but she’s pretty good, and fully capable of turning good first passes into good second passes – when she gets one – which has been rare all season, and rarer yet tonight vs the Scarlet Knights.

Shaffmaster, who sat out last night’s match, and Set 1 tonight, due to illness, and shared setting duties with McGhie in Set 2, recorded 23 assists (i.e., she delivered a set which her hitter “killed) for the match, McGhie added 13, Murr 3, and the rest of the team another 6, for a total of 45. But we must have had roughly 180 to 200 first pass opportunities, and less than half of those reached the desired part of the court.

Part of this, of course, falls on Landfair, Wooker and Grote, and  their own deficiencies as passers. No team at the D1 level (that I know of) expects their Middles to regularly receive serve or dig – that’s what Liberos are for. And you don’t need to have all 3 of your Outside Hitters to be great passers, that’s what D.S.s are for. (If only we had one). But opposing teams watch film; they know that Landfair will produce roughly one good serve-receive in three. And Grote must be worse, cause we hide her on serve-receive.

Last year, we had Jenna Wenaas, now playing leftside hitter for #8 ranked Texas. Wenaas wasn’t good enough to hit leftside for the Gophers (she really wasn’t), so McCutcheon played her rightside, where she wasn’t as good as this year’s rightside. (Grote is definitely an upgrade offensively. ) But Wenaas was an excellent passer; for my money, she was better than McGraw at serve-receive. And even then, with a serve-receive of McGraw, Wenaas and Kilkelly half the time, the 2022 Gophers were a mediocre passing team. The 2023 Gophers, with a standard serve-receive of Murr, Landfair & Wooker, are terrible. I doubt that this squad, which has remained ranked in the top 25, until the rankings get updated tomorrow night, are among the top 200 in serve-receive. And it ain’t Murr’s fault. (She misses one or two per match, but we’re asking her to do too much.)

And none of our 3 Middles could play for a top-16 team either. Davis was credited with 7 “partial” blocks tonight (I counted 3), but I suspect that’s because Rutgers isn’t great.

I shouldn’t bash the two East Coast Teams that whipped our butts this weekend, they obviously have rosters full of reasonably talented players. But Rutgers had never, in their entire history, beaten a “ranked” (i.e., top-25) team. And they didn’t tonight either; the 2023 Gophers are no top-25 team.

At least not now. It’s a long season, and maybe some miracle will occur. But given the nature of the problem, I think the unnamed Reader who predicted a 10 & 10 Big Ten finish was probably optimistic. But if you’re a true fan, like I am, keep wishing and hoping.

Since the beginning of the Trump era, wife Maureen has tried to ban the use of the word “unprecedented;”  but this was the first loss to Maryland in program history, Terps in five, 18-25, 25-22, 26-24, 20-25, 10-15. The Gophers and the Terps came into the match with identical 2 & 2 records in the Big Ten. Maryland had a much better overall record, but they hadn’t beaten anyone any good, and the Gophers extremely challenging non-conference schedule was supposed to prepare them for adversity. But it did not prepare the Gophs for the adversity of playing without star setter Melani Shaffmaster.  Shaffmaster was at the match, but, apparently due to illness during the week, did not step on the court. 

(I was unable to watch Set 1, an 18-25 loss, because, to my knowledge, it was not televised anywhere, due to the preliminary game going 4 sets, So my analysis refers to Sets 2 through 4.)

Backup setter Elise McGhie played hard, but the fall-off from Shaffmaster to McGhie was painfully obvious:

• Problem 1, the 5-10 McGhie cannot block, and the Terps knew it. The BTN announcer described several Maryland kills as “tricky,” but I don’t know what’s tricky about pounding the ball down the line over the hands of a setter/blocker who can barely reach the top of the net.
• Problem 2, McGhie’s tempo is slower than Shaffmaster, which is what it is, but it requires adjustments by the hitters. Several GopherVBallRocks readers have wondered why the Gophers don’t (usually) play a 6-2, and these slight variations are part of the reason.
• Problem 3, I had Julie Hanson with the only back-row kill of the match (we usually have half a dozen); it seemed to me that most of McGhie’s attempted back-row sets were unhittable.
• I think that McGhie’s vulnerability should have dictated a shift in serving strategy. I wanted the Gophs to serve very aggressively when McGhie was in the front row (given that an easy serve would allow the Terps to attack McGhie); and to serve conservatively when McGhie was in the back row (trusting our front row, with Grote, to outplay the Terps’ front row). (But I cannot claim that I actually observed this.)

• This is not to suggest that everything that went wrong was McGhie’s fault (she had a respectable 4 kills despite her limited height), the ongoing weaknesses we have seen with Shaffmaster on the court were all too obvious. The Gophers, especially Landfair, continued to struggle with serve-receive, forcing McGhie to chase the ball all over the court, often making her set-choice far too obvious, and therefore easier to block (the Terps had a lot of them).

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES: 

• Our Outside Hitters, especially Grote, played well. Grote had 18 kills (apparently zero in (Set 1, which I didn’t see) , at a ,279 clip.
• I had Davis with 4 blocks, her best blocking-match of the season.
• Murr has 27 digs, many of them spectacular.
• Seldom used D.S. Zeynap Palabiyik contributed 2 aces. 

• TOMORROW NIGHT: Rutgers. I think the Gophers should beat Rutgers with my 15 yr-old granddaughter setting. But we shall see. 

The Gophers spotted Penn State a 3-12 lead to start Set 1 and, despite playing the Nittany Lions almost even after that, lost 14-25, 25-23, 20-25 & 25-27. The 2023 Gophers have not been a strong first-half of Set 1 kind of team (neither were most of McCutcheon’s teams), which leaves them playing from behind too often. They lost Set 1 to Highpoint, and roared back to win in 4, but Penn State is too good for the Gophers to start so slow.

Gopher fans looking for a scapegoat have a target-rich field to choose from. I had: 

• Landfair with 6 receiving errors;
• Wooker with 5 service errors; and
• Our Middles were completely outplayed, on offense and defense. Penn State knew that Davis can’t block and picked on her every chance they had (Davis’s one block came in Set 1)
• Penn State’s overall floor game was better. The Gophers made a few wonderful saves, but Penn State made a ton.
• But the pathetic start in Set 1 fell mostly on Wooker. She got stuffed on her first two swings, and lost her confidence. She finished Set 1 with 1 kill – and that was on an off-speed shot. 

But it is worth mentioning that the Gophers’ generally poor receiving (not all Landfair), and almost non-existent middle-hitting (completely missing in Set 1), left no doubt as to where the set was going, so Wooker was facing a double-block on almost every swing.

Highlights:

• Landfair, despite her receiving struggles, had 16 kills (her best match of the season), and was the Gophers only offense in Set 1.
•  Wooker recovered from a disastrous Set 1 to record 14 kills. (Readers are probably getting tired of hearing this, especially when we lose, but I thought that the Gophers’ pair of Left-side Hitters were better than those of  the Nittany Lions – if you consider the quality of the sets they were getting. 
• I had the Gophers with 10 “off-speed kills” (dinks) in the match. I’m pretty sure that’s the most in any one match in the history of GopherVBallRocks, and probably the most in the past 15 years. And 
• Shaffmaster led the Gophs to victory in Set 2, with 2 of her 4 kills, and her only block.

But winning Set2 wasn’t enough.

Forecast: A GopherVBallRocks reader, who wishes to remain unnamed, not even by initials, predicts that the Gophs will finish 10 & 10 in the Big 10, good for7th or 8th place, but not good enough to make the NCAA Tournament. I went into tonight’s match hoping for something like 14-6 and 3rd place in the Big 10, and a top-16 seed. But Penn State is one of the teams that the Gophers would have to beat for that to happen.

NEXT UP:

• Maryland, Friday Oct 6 at 7:00, on BTN &
• Rutgers, Saturday Oct 7 at 6:00 on BTN+

A chance for the Gophers to play like contenders.