Month: September 2024

Purdue, 24-26, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 10-15.

Two matches into the Big 10 season, the Gophers are 1 & 1, 8 & 4 overall. Five of the Gopher opponents (St. Thomas, Long Island, Green Bay, UND and Chicago State) were teams we were supposed to beat, and we swept each in straight sets. We also swept SE Conference Auburn, currently the #27 ranked team in the country. The other 6 matches went 5 sets (oddly, the Gophs have not played a 4-set match in 12 outings), losing to #3 Stanford (by 2 pts), beating #8 Texas (by 8), losing to #19 Baylor (by 2), losing to #22 TCU (by 2), beating #7 Wisconsin (by 2), and tonight, losing to #10 Purdue (by 5). The conclusion I draw is that while unbeaten Pitt and 10 & 1 Nebraska might be a cut above the rest, there is a ton of parity from #3 to at least #26 (and maybe beyond), which includes another 7 Big 10 teams besides Nebraska.

Tonight’s match itself was an example of this parity. Purdue’s leading hitters, Colvin and Hudson, posted 19 & 18 kills, respectively, vs Hanson and Grote with 19 and 17. We had 10 block-kills, they had 9. Both teams were great at getting partial blocks and amazing digs to keep rallies going when hitters crushed the ball. Long volleys, with the ball crossing the net a dozen times or more, were the norm rather than the exception.

The upshot is that at least half of the Gophers (10 of 20) Big 10 matches will be decided by a lucky bounce here, a  questionable call there, or an unforced error.  There was a call in tonight’s Set 1 (which cost us the Set) that those of us in Section 110 didn’t agree with. But the real story was unforced errors, especially in the Gophers’ serve-receive. I don’t think of Wooker as a great serve-receiver, so I was surprised, when Acevedo broke into the line-up, that Wooker would sub-in to handle serve-receive when Acevedo was hitting effectively. Could Acevedo be worse? Apparently yes.

Through 3 sets, with Wooker still injured, Acevedo was the Gophers leading hitter, but the Boilermakers were targeting her in serve-receive, and getting easy point after easy point. When Coach Cook tried to protect Acevedo by going to a two-player receive, either Palabiyik and Thibault, or Palabiyik and Hanson. Thibault broke down. The Gophers held their own with Purdue in hitting, blocking and digging, but coughed up an astonishing 17 Boilermakers aces, including 3 in the deciding Set 5. (The raw stats suggest that the Boilermakers slightly out-hit the Gophs, but only because we were playing out-of-system all night.) Down 2 sets to 1, going into Set 4, Coach Cook benched Acevedo entirely, moving Grote to Leftside and playing Crowl at Opposite, and it worked — at least in Set 4. I’m not a huge Crowl fan, but she had 2 kills in 5 swings and served well. I should give Purdue credit, they found our weakness and exploited it.

NEXT UP:

• Friday, Oct 4, 9:00 p.m., @ UCLA, on BTN+
• Saturday, Oct 5, 10:00 p.m., @ Southern Cal, on BTN

CLARIFICATION: I think I should clarify my comments (in my previous post) about the Gophers having limited depth at Setter. What I meant was that if Shaffmaster were to experience a minor injury causing her to miss part of a match, or even an entire weekend, or if she were to be injured in late November or December, I presume that our option would be to go to a 6-2, with McGhie and Ng doing the setting, and Crowl playing the other Opposite. We might be able to beat a “second-division” Big 10 team with this lineup, but we would definitely be weaker.

If, on the other hand, Shaffmaster were to experience a major injury, causing her to miss half or more of the season, I assume that Stella Swenson would step in as our 5-1 setter, sacrificing her red-shirt status. (I don’t know exactly what # of sets she could play and retain her status.) Stella does not have all the tools Shaffmaster has (like blocking and attacking), and she might need a week to adjust to the Big 10 level of play, but I have no doubt that Stella will eventually be a star.

Okay, “crush” might be an exaggeration, the Gophs won in 5 sets, 19-25, 25-15, 25-27, 25-15, 18-16 (composite score 112-98), but it is true that the Gophs were rated #18 pre-season and #16 entering conference play, and the Badgers were rated #3 pre-season and #7 entering conference play, so a great win.

Balance was the key to our offense. Grote led Gopher hitters with 17 kills (including 1 dink and 1 dig-overpass deep behind the astonished Sconnies), but Hanson had 15 (also including a dig-overpass deep behind the Sconnies), Acevedo had 12 (including 1 dink), Minatee had 10 (including 7 slides 1 quick and 2 overpass put-aways), Shaffmaster had 6 (really 7 except that the ref called her for a throw that looked good to me – Awoleye and a Badger player got away with much more flagrant throws), and Awoleye had 5 kills (2 slide and 3 quicks). By comparison, the Badgers were dependent, perhaps overly dependent, on the marvelous Sarah Franklin (21 kills, 38% of the Badger total).

As recently as Tuesday, I wrote that Minatee was adequate and Awoleye less than adequate. I certainly expected the Badger Middle-Trio of Carter Booth, Devyn Robinson and CC Crawford to dominate Minatee and Awoleye. Boy was I wrong! Undersized Minatee and Awoleye combined for 16 kills and a .382 hitting percentage, whereas Booth, Robinson and Crawford produced only 5 kills and a hitting percentage of 000. (They had hitting errors to match their 5 kills.) Middles vs Middles was a beat-down.

But I was right about Shaffmaster and Palabiyik. Franklin was probably the best player of the match, but Grote, Shaffmaster and Palabiyik were 2, 3, & 4 (not necessarily in that order), completely out-playing their Badger counter-parts. (Last year and early this year, Shaffmaster would nearly kill herself to reach a 2nd-touch rather than letting Palabiyik handle a 2nd-touch; but I noticed during the matches in Green Bay, and again tonight, that Shaffmaster is now very comfortable letting Palabiyik handle a 2nd-touch – and justifiably so.) 

Plus our serving was outstanding, a key factor in the upset victory and definitely a reversal from some previous matches. If you had told me, before the match, that the Gophs would have 6 aces and 8 errors, I would have been very happy with those numbers. But we had 8 aces and 6 service errors. 

You probably noticed Acevedo’s contribution, and no reference to Wooker. Wooker is injured (Gopher Policy, as always, is “no-comment.”) Wooker was dressed, warmed up as a serve-receiver, and played back-row for Acevedo in Set 1, but not very well, and not at all after that. Acevedo played front-row and served, and was then relieved by our D.S., Thibault. Grote, who is usually relieved by Thibault after losing her serve, played all 6 rotations beginning with Set 2. I am not remotely confident about our depth at Setter or Middle, and uncertain about our depth at Libero; the Gophers are very fortunate that their one injury so far is at Leftside, where Acevedo filled in admirably.

This match was sold out, especially the student sections, I think they turned away more students than they let in. This was a 5-set match starting at 8:00, so it is well past my bedtime (and no longer Wednesday) as I finish this, but I don’t mind because I AM PUMPED!

NEXT UP: #10 ranked Purdue, Saturday, 5:30, at the Pav (BTN). Purdue is tough, but so are these Gophers.

I should probably say things “I’ve “learned, happy to post readers’ thoughts on this. 

From a distance, no big surprises. Our initial national ranking was #18, which I felt was about right. I expected us to lose to Stanford & Texas, take 2 of 3 from Baylor, TCU & Auburn, and beat St. Thomas, Long Island, Green Bay, N Dakota & Chicago State, so 7 & 3. We beat Texas, lost to Baylor & TCU, and the rest as expected, so 7 & 3, andbumped up slightly to #16. But there were some encouraging elements on our road to 7 & 3:

• We beat Texas, ranked #1 at the time, on a neutral court – a “signature win.”
• All 3 of our losses were in 5 sets, and all 3 of our Set 5 losses by 2 pts – we weren’t “over-matched,” even vs #3 Stanford. 
• 6 of our 7 wins, including #27 Auburn, and at Green Bay, were in straight sets; we’re actually 27 & 11 in sets played, vs a respectable mix of strong & weak opponents. And
• Our digging is much improved. This year’s squad doesn’t have as much size and power at the net as some previous teams, but this could turn out to be the best digging team in Gopher history.

Individually, there have been some very pleasant surprises:

• Leftside Julia Hanson, with 130 kills (including several from the back-row), 3.71 kills/set, a .241 kill percentage, and the only one on the team delivering “shock & awe” kills, has played great. This probably should not have been a surprise, given that she had been the Strib’s High School Player of the Year – but then again, she spent her Freshman and Sophomore seasons on the bench, behind Wooker and Taylor Landfair. (Taylor who?) Hanson is part of our serve-receive, but not targeted by our opponents (8 official errors in 89 receives, or .910 success).
• Setter-Plus Melani Shaffmaster has played great. I say “Setter-Plus,” because in addition to her 314 assists, she has 125 digs and 33 kills (almost 1 per set). Not showing up in the official Gopher stats are her frequent “saves at the net” on errant Gopher digs. I’ve previously apologized for being surprised by Shaffmaster. (What was I thinking?) She’s not the quickest setter around, and therefore ends up bump-setting too much, but her bump-setting is good, and her offense has been terrific. She also leads the team with 13 Aces (vs 15 errors, I’ll take it), and seems comfortable as the Team’s Leader.
• Libero Zeynep Palabiyik has played great. A Freshman last year, Palabiyik, who should have been, and eventually became our D.S., spent half of last season on the bench while the Gophers played without a D.S., then looked shaky at first, but got better. I was uncertain, heading into the season, if Palabiyik could handle Libero – but my doubts are gone. She struggles a bit with hard-hit floater-serves right at her (16 official errors in 236 receives, or .932 success), but she is fearless and crazy quick, covering more ground than Kylie Murr or CC McGraw did.
• Middle Calissa Minatee has played well. A Freshman last year, Minatee sat on the bench behind a pair of mediocre Middles, and I spent the off-season howling about our need to find one in the Portal. Turns out, Minatee, with 66 kills (almost all on “slides,” rarely on “quicks”) looks good; better, definitely than either of our other Middles.  
• Opposite Lydia Grote, with 87 kills and a .249 percentage, has played great too. But she was great last year, so not surprising.

Less pleasant:

• Leftside McKenna Wucherer (The Wooker), with 72 kills and a .173 percentage, has been okay, but I was expecting her to be better than okay. She hasn’t been attacking the ball as aggressively, she’s not serving at all, lately, and this past weekend she was on the bench with a corset-type wrap around her waist – so obviously not 100% healthy. Maybe she hasn’t been all season. But a healthy Wooker can be an important offensive weapon; we need her healthy and in the lineup.
• Red-shirt Freshman Alex Acevedo has, with Wooker out, been playing the other Leftside (in addition to Hanson), and also looks okay, with 31 skills and a .194 percentage. As a Freshman-transfer, she is still feeling her way, and I expect her to get better. But right now, I’d rather see Hanson and a healthy Wooker. Encouraging however, is that Acevedo, with 11 aces and a .046 percentage, has been our strongest server.
• Back-up Opposites Lauren Crowl and Sydney Schnichels don’t get quality playing time behind Grote, so it’s unfair to expect too much. Fourth-year player Crowl gets more of it, but doesn’t produce much; she hits the ball hard, but (except vs Chicago State) rarely gets a kill. Schnichels is a red-shirt Freshman, injured for most of last season, but like Hanson, the #1 recruit in MN in her graduating class, so I was/am hoping she emerges as a factor before too long.
• D.S. Kate Thibault has been okay. Along with howling for a better Middle, I spent the off-season howling for another Libero/D.S., and when we got one in Sophomore Thibault, I speculated that she might compete with Palabiyik for the more important Libero role. So far, no.

Disappointing:

• Fifth-year (2nd with the Gophers) Middle Phoebe Awoleye has not played well at all, not even as well as last year. She rarely connected on “slides” last year, but she used to score “quicks.” This season, neither, at least so far. And
• Fifth-year Middle (Portal Transfer) Kali Engeman does not look like a D1 Middle.

Summing up: Strong digging, Strong Outside Hitting (especially if Wooker gets healthy), Competent setting and strong Leadership by Shaffmaster – one glaring weakness at Middle and not much of a bench. But the Gophers have demonstrated the ability to efficiently dispose of weaker teams, and play very tough against the best in the country. I think that a top-5 finish in the Big 10, and a Sweet 16 berth in the NCAAs are both realistic goals.  We host #7 Wisconsin tomorrow night, and # 10 Purdue on Saturday, so we’ll find out soon.

Since losing Set 5 (by 2 pts) to TCU two weeks ago, the Gophs have won 6 straight matches, each convincingly in 3 straight sets, including today’s victory over a scrappy Chicago State squad (led by 6-4 Argentinian Middle Juliette Sandez), 25-16, 25-15, 25-18. The total-composite score was almost identical to yesterday’s sweep of North Dakota, except that the Chi-State Cougars made the Gophers earn their points. By my count, 41 of the Gophers 75 points came on kills by Gopher hitters, vs roughly half that number vs NoDak. 

For the second straight day, Wooker was not dressed. Yesterday, I didn’t know why, but today I saw that Wooker was wearing a corset-type wrap around her waist. My experience suggests that a wrap like that indicates a lower-back injury. She may have been wearing this all season, but I hadn’t noticed it before. ANYONE? We need a healthy Wooker, let’s hope Coach Cook, with Wisconsin coming up on Wednesday, was not playing Wooker merely out of an abundance of caution.

For the 3 matches in Green Bay, (9 sets), Hanson led the Gophers with 24 kills, including multiple WOW-kills. Grote added 19, Minatee 12, Acevedo 11 and Awoleye 10.  Wisconsin Green Bay turned out the toughest opponent, but they lost today’s finale, in 5 sets, to St. Thomas. In retrospect, I probably would have enjoyed being in Milwaukee for the Stanford & Texas matches more than I enjoyed being in Green Bay for UWGB, UND and Chi-State, but that’s hindsight. And those early matches were televised, which not all of these matches were. It also gave me an opportunity to watch some of the Gopher reserves. Today, our # 3 Opposite Schnickels had a kill and a block, # 3 Middle Engeman had 2 kills and 2 blocks, but most impressive today was #2 Opposite Crowl, with 5 kills and a block.

NDSU has, in the past, provided solid competition for the Gophs, and I thought that the Fighting Whatevers, coming off a 5-set win over West Virginia, might also. But Set 1: UND was respectable up to 10-10, but then the wheels fell off and it was 16-11, 22-14, and 25-16.  Set 2: Tied 6-6 it was quickly 14-7, 19-8 and 25-9.  Set 3: 4-4 turned into 11-5, 19-8 and 25-13; set and match. Ugly.

UND’s passing and setting didn’t seem too bad, but their hitters couldn’t get a ball over the net. St. Thomas is also in this tournament, and two of the Tommy coaches were sitting nearby, and between sets 2 & 3 of the Gopher-UND match, I mentioned my disdain for UND. The Tommy coach’s response was, “MN will do that to a hitter. They block like demons, and if you manage to get a ball past their block, they dig it up like it was a free ball. Pretty soon, the opposing hitters are trying to do things they’ve never done before, and end up looking foolish.” Maybe.

Miscellaneous notes: 

• Wooker was present, but not dressed. I don’t know why.
• The Gophs subbed freely in Set 3, using Crowl, McGhie, Schnickels, Gray and Ng. (Hanson and Acevedo played the whole way, because we don’t have a fourth Leftside.)
• Overall, the Gophs had 7 Aces and 8 Service Errors, which sounds good – except that Ng had 3 of the Aces and Crowl had 2; the starters had 2 Aces and 8 Service Errors; not good.
• Palabiyik continues to impress; she’s everywhere.
• Olivia Swenson continues to disappoint. She’s red-shirting and can’t play, but she warms up with the team, and stands out as not belonging. I can’t see her as a Big Ten player.

Set 1: The Gophers looked like a Big Ten / Top 25 Team playing a Horizon League squad. UWGB had no defense for Julia Hanson, and even Owoleye was getting kills. The Gophs led 9-2 on strong serving by Acevedo, later 16-7, and coasted to a 25-16 win.

Set 2: The Gophers looked like a Horizon League squad. The Gophs played most of their starters, except for Engeman in place of Owoleye for the whole set, and Crowl for Grote halfway through. Engeman looked terrible, and Crowl looked like Crowl, i.e., she gets great swings, hits the ball hard, but never gets a kill. The Gophs trailed 8-10, were tied 16-16, before finally prevailing 25-21.

Set 3: Owoleye and Grote were back in, but Acevedo was in for Wooker — and was ineffective (except for strong serving). The Gophs started strong, leading 9-2, but fell behind 12-14 and 15-17, before a nice run (with Hanson serving) put the Gophs ahead 20-17, eventually winning 25-20.

I think there are at least two explanations for the relatively poor showing in Sets 2 & 3: 1) The Gopher bench isn’t real strong; and 2) Volleyball teams have trouble maintaining their intensity when they feel they are superior to their opponents.

Some things we never see at the Pav:

• During Set 1, Gopher servers frequently rejected balls they were handed to serve, and between sets, the Down Ref tested — and added to more air to the problematic balls.
• The Phoenix Swim Team about 30 young men, filled the bleachers at one end of the court, the end behind the Gophs during Set 1, mostly wearing bib-overalls (a few in jeans and Ts), cheering for their team. As Set 2 began, with the Gophs now facing these handsome boys (behind the Phoenix V-Ballers), the Swimmers stripped off their clothing except for their speedos, presumably intended to distract the Gopher Women (perhaps a third reason for poor play), and then
• In Set 3, produced an electric razor and began to shave each others bodies (a not-uncommon practice among competitive swimmers). In doing this (for reasons I cannot explain), they either unplugged the scoreboard, or blew the fuse, because the scoreboard went dead and was unusable for the rest of the match. 

Those who know me well, know that I never travel without a speedo, and of course I was tempted to join them — but my speedo was in the car.

In addition to  productive matches (vs a Horizon League squad) from Hanson (11 kills), Owoleye (7 kills in 9 swings) and Minatee (5 kills and 5 blocks), I was very impressed by Palabiyik – not only her 20 first-touch digs (maybe what you expect from your Libero in a 132-point match), but also her frequent second touch saves, many resulting in decent sets.

A week ago, the Gophs were 1 & 3, with all 4 matches in 5 sets (so we were 9 & 11 in sets, and each 5th set by 2 points). Now we’re 4 & 3, (9 & 0 this week). Obviously, St. Thomas isn’t a v-ball power (yet), and Long Island was terrible, but Auburn who walked into the Pav with a 6 & 0 record, including a 4-set win over Florida St (who is supposed to be good), and walked out humiliated, after a 25-21, 25-22, 25-16 Gopher victory. And it wasn’t as close as the scores make it sound.

Set 1 was tight. After an early 7-4 Gopher lead, the Tigers pulled ahead 7-8 on strong serving/poor receiving (more about this below). At 12-12, Hanson got hot, pushing the Gophs to 16-12, but Auburn pulled back to within one at 16-15, and it was not clear to me that the Gophs would prevail. But we pulled back ahead at 21-16, and traded side-outs for the win.

The Tigers came out strong in Set 2, 0-5 on the strength of their back-row hitter. But after a timeout, we finally got a side-out on a strong kill by Hanson. And a 7-point serving-run by Alex “ACE” Acevedo  put the Gophs back in front at 8-7. Then, surprisingly, Auburn stopped looking like a D-1 team, and the Gophs were 17-11. The teams traded side-outs for a while to reach 24-18. Then, with the set seemingly inn the bag, we rotated to our one weak rotation (more about this below), squandering 4 straight set-points.

Auburn seemed overwhelmed in Set 3. The Gophers led 4-0, 12-1, and 17-4 before getting complacent. The Tigers got to 22-16, but no closer.  In each of the 3 sets, set point came on an unforced Auburn error. (Where was that generosity when we had match-point vs TCU?) All in all, the Gophs beat the Tigers, representing the Mighty SEC, by a composite score of 75-57 – the exact same score we beat poor little St. Thomas by.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Reader RA, who did submit his notes on the St. Thomas match, but just seconds too late to make the blog-post, noted that Acevedo had individual serving runs of 5 points, 6 points and 7 points, with 4 aces for the match (vs 1 service error). 
• I’d like to add that this rotation has Wooker (7 kills for the match) and Minatee (also 7 kills) both on the bench, with a front row of Owoleye (zero kills), Shaffmaster (who is supposed to be setting) and Hanson (Shaffmaster’s only real option, should NOT be a strong rotation for us.
• But (RA again) in addition to Acevedo’s 4 aces, she had a lot of near-aces, keeping the Tigers out-of-system.
• I’d add that Hanson, our only real hitter in this rotation, who led the match with 12 kills, and Shaffmaster, who finally (in her 5th season as the Gopher Setter) is finding her attack-mode, contributed to Acevedo’s service-runs. 
• I am so impressed by Stella Swenson that I spent the off-season wondering what role Shaffmaster would play during the ‘24 season. Shame on me. Shaffmaster has gotten better each season to the next; why didn’t I expect this trend to continue. Shaffmaster is the reason this team is going to be better than I thought they would be.
• And this team digs like no previous Gopher team in memory. CC McGraw was a very good Libero (when completely healthy) and Wenaas was an excellent passer, and someone else on that team would make a nice dig once in a while. But the team I watched tonight digs your lips off! The whole team, Shaffmaster, Grote, Wooker, Hanson, Acevedo, Thibault and Palabiyik. These seven players recorded 80 digs in 3 sets, and half of them were spectacular. And I don’t think the official digs include some amazing “saves” made above their heads. I think there were individual points where the Gophers made 6 to 8 spectacular digs.

LOWLIGHTS:

• We have one very scary half-rotation, when Shaffmaster has lost her serve and our front row includes Grote, Minatee and Hanson. This is exactly the half-rotation that cost us the Baylor and TCU matches (maybe the Stanford match?) A front row of Grote, Minatee and Hanson sounds strong (a lot stronger than Owoleye, Shaffmaster, and Hanson sounds), but it’s Grote hitting Leftside, Minatee hitting quicks, and Hanson hitting Rightside. Hanson, who is hitting great from the Left, and decent from back-row, has not yet become effective on the Right. And Minatee, who is looking great on slides, is not great on quicks, plus the Gophers prefer to run the slides when Shaffmaster is front row (it gets crowded), and Grote has been inconsistent, at best, from the Left. It seems illogical that Grote, who is right-handed, is so much less effective from the Left, but the great Steph Samedy was the same way. Our backrow, in this half-rotation, includes Shaffmaster, Palabiyik and Wooker; Shaffmaster is one of our best weapons, but it’s illegal for her to hit when she’s backrow, Palabiyik is 5 ft tall, and Wooker hasn’t recorded more than 3 or 4 backrow kills in either of her previous seasons. So we’re left with Grote’s inconsistent Leftside attack, and praying for a service-error from our opponents. [An option that occurs to me is to flip Wooker and Hanson in the lineup. Wooker isn’t any better than Hanson at Rightside, but at least we’d have back-row attacks by Hanson as an option. But Coach Cook probably won’t want to disrupt a lineup that’s clicking in the other 5 and one-half rotations. Long-run, Grote and/or Minatee and/or Hanson have to get better.
• I said throughout the off-season that Cook had to find a strong Middle from the Portal; and he was unable to do this (I assume he tried). I thought Owoleye, a 5th-year senior was the stronger of our two returning Middles, but I was wrong. The Sophomore Minatee is okay, but Owoleye played all 3 sets and finished the evening with zero kills .The kills she has earned in previous matches are almost exclusively off quicks or over-passes; she can’t score a slide to save her life. – and that’s gonna kill us against stronger teams.

DILEMMA: There is also the dilemma of how to use Acevedo. She didn’t play front-row tonight; she served for Wooker and was immediately back on the bench when she lost her serve. Wooker struggles for consistency on serve-receive, but she’s doing it with Acevedo on the bench. Folks in Section 110 are wondering why?

NEXT UP: Three matches in three days in Green Bay to finish the non-conference schedule lLet’s plan to finish strong), UWGB on Thursday, North Dakota on Friday, and Chicago State (I think this was UI-Circle when I used to play them in Water Polo) on Saturday. The UWGB will be available on ESPN+, but I’m not sure if the Friday & Sat matches will be televised at all. Fortunately, Maureen and I will be there in person to cover these matches.

I hurried back into town and went straight from the airport to the Pav, maybe unnecessary. Gophs 25-17, 25-14, 25-16 over the LOng Island University Sharks

• Set 1: We played the starters … no contest.
• Set 2: Acevedo played the entire set replacing Hanson … no drop in performance en route to a 12-2 lead. But
• When, as Shaffmaster rotated to front-row, we went to a 6-2, using McGhie at setter and Crowl at Opposite … we went 3-8 over the next 11 points … 
• But were again dominant when Shaffmaster and Grote returned.
• Set 3: Stayed with Wooker & Acevedo at Leftside, but wholesale substitutions eslewhere:

> A 6-2 with McGhie and Ng as the setters.

> Schnickels and Crowl at Opposite

> Gray sharing Libero duties, and even

> Egeman in at Middle (for Owoleye?)

Didn’t seem to matter.

I was going to give cred to LIU’s Libero, who I thought was terrific and deserves a better team – but I can’t tell you her name, because no one who looks like her or wears her number is on the Sharks roster. A “Ringer?”

St. Thomas and LIU much lower-level competition than Stanford, Texas, Baylor and TCU, but tomorrow night at the Pav, we get Auburn, who comes in with a 6-0 record. 

I was/am out of town and unable to attend or see tonight’s match vs the Tommies, but several very capable GopherVBallRocks sent in reports.

MT reports that the Gophs won 25-20, 25-16 & 25-21. The “regulars” started each set, but once a comfortable lead was established, subs including Acevedo, McGhie, Crowl, Schnickle and even Engeman got playing time. Grote and Hanson led the Gophs with 10 kills each, and Grote added 5 blocks.

R & SM report that Shaffmaster’s fingers (the fingers injured vs TCU) were taped up, but they didn’t seem to bother her much, but McGhie got roughly one-third of the sets. They didn’t think that Palabiyik or Crowl played especially well, but they liked what they saw from Acevedo.

TR reports that despite the sweep, the Tommies played well, especially their setter, and the crowd was treated to some very long and entertaining rallies. The Gophs prevailed based on superior height and balance – except for offense by our Middles. TR was especially impressed by Thibault’s digging. TR continues to insist that Gopher VBall is the “Best Show in Town.”

[Loyal reader RA, who has provided GopherVBallRocks with excellent coverage in the past, was unable to attend tonight’s match because, as one of the 12 “undecided” voters left in the country, RA had to watch the debate. Stuck in PA and unable to  attend or watch the match, I watched the debate, and came away with a valuable tip for GopherVBallRocks readers: Keep Fido on the leash, or somebody gonna eat ‘im.]

For the fourth time in their four matches this season ( 5 of 5 if you count the exhibition vs Iowa State), the Gophers went 5 sets (you sure get your money’s worth with this team); and for the third time in four tries, we lost Set 5 by 2 points, TCU wins 21-25, 24-26, 25-21, 25-21, 18-20. Composite score in today’s match: Gophs 113, TCU 113. Composite score in the Set 5s this season: Gophs 60, Stanford/Texas/Baylor/TCU 58. If one wanted to look for excuses, you could note that the Gophers were playing their fourth match (20 sets) in 7 days (all on the road vs tough opponents)), and second match (10 sets) in less than 24 hours. And they looked tired.

But we’re 1 & 3 to start the season. Not horrible given the competition, and likely, given the signature win over Texas, enough to keep the Gophs ranked in the top 25. The good news is that the schedule gets easier, with the next 6 matches, until the Big Ten Opener (against Wisconsin), vs teams we should beat. (Hopefully without going 5 sets in any of them.)

INDIVIDUALLY:

• Hanson, who had 19 kills vs Texas and 16 vs Baylor, continued her hot run with 23 vs TCU. (Reader GH asks how much we miss Landfair. Not much so far. I’d say we miss Wenaas, and her passing, more.) Hanson is holding her own as a hitter.
• But Grote, who had 15 kills vs Baylor, disappeared vs TCU. She finished with 4 kills (on 27 swings, .037),  but only 1 in Set 1, was benched (maybe Coach Cook thought she was tired) in favor of Crowl (equally unproductive) for Set 2, came back for Set 3, but didn’t get her second kill until Set 4.
• Wooker who was benched last night vs Baylor, played all 5 sets (but didn’t  serve), looked benchable during Set 1 and most of Set 2, but came alive late in Set 2 and finished with 16 kills.
• Curiously, Acevedo, who came off the bench to earn 12 kills vs Baylor, never saw the front row vs TCU. She served for Wooker (no aces, 3 service errors), but came back out immediately so that Wooker could play back row – is Acevedo an even weaker serve-receive than Wooker?
• Palabiyik looked good again. Not perfect, but good; I like her.
• Minatee, who had 11 kills and 4 blocks last night vs Baylor had 8 kills and 4 blocks today vs TCU; off a bit (tired maybe?), but decent. 
• Oloweye, who was terrible vs Baylor, had 4 kills and 2 blocks vs TCU, but one of her kills was off an overpass, so only 3 offensive-kills in 5 sets. Oloweye was a major weakness this weekend; the Gophers need more production from that position, but beats me where it could come from.
• Shaffmaster,  who works harder than anyone on the team, didn’t seem tired. I have described Shaffmaste as the squad’s best “clutch player,” and she had a bunch of kills in her first two matches vs Stanford & Texas, but didn’t attack much last night vs Baylor, or in today’s first two sets (1 kill, maybe?). But I think she got frustrated setting her unproductive hitters (except Hanson), and decided to put the team on her shoulders. And it was almost enough. She had 4 kills in Set 3 and 4 more in Set 4. One more in Set 5 gave her 10 for the match – and the first “triple-double of her career, 47 assists, 21 digs, and 10 kills. (She also had 4 blocks.)  

Typically, 5-1 teams are significantly stronger in rotations in which their setter is in the back-row (giving them 3 front-row hitters). But today, especially in Sets 3 & 4, the Gophs had much greater success when Shaffmaster was front row  (and especially with Elise McGhie serving – no aces, but several multi-point runs).  I’ve been pleading with Shaffmaster (on this blog, which she probably doesn’t read) to attack more; maybe this will be the turning point? 

Unfortunately, Shaffmaster, who was carrying the team, jammed her fingers late in Set 5. (I think the score was 17-17.) I’ve jammed fingers playing V-ball, and it hurts like hell. Shaffmaster was in tears, got her fingers taped, and stayed in the match. But we lost 3 of the last 4 points – and the match. Hard to say if Shaffmaster’s injury made any difference in those last 3 points, but it didn’t help. Good thing we have an easier schedule this week.

All in all,  a disappointing weekend. Here are some other things I find especially frustrating:

• Back-row dinks by the Gophers, i.e., Hanson, Wooker and Grote – they never work!
• Our difficulty handling free balls and over-passes – we ought to win 80 % of them (90% when we had the Tapp Sisters), but win barely 50%.
• The Gophers giving our opponents free balls. I used to think Landfair was bad about this and Wooker was fearless, now Wooker does it – if your position is “hitter,” then hit!
• Owoleye’s inability to hit a slide. She couldn’t do it last year, she can’t do it this year – and it’s painful to watch her try.
• We have one really weak half-rotation – when we’re receiving with Grote at front-left and Hanson at front-right. Grote is mediocre at front-left and Hanson is less than mediocre at front-right. When we’re serving, they can switch across, but it’s so difficult during a receive that most teams, including the Gophers, don’t dare. The options include production from one of our Middles, or switching Wooker to front-right, and using Hanson as a back-row hitter, neither an easy fix. 

BTW, if you are reluctant to buy the “tired” excuse for the Gophers to lose to TCU, consider this:

• The Gophers played on short-rest, specifically 3 hours less than their opponent, TCU. We lost the first 2 sets, came back to win the next two, led halfway through Set 5, but faded at the end of the match;
• Baylor played on short-rest, specifically 3 hours less than their opponent, Wisconsin. Baylor lost the first 2 sets, came back to win the next two, led halfway through Set 5, but faded at the end of the match. Coincidence?

NEXT UP: Another busy week, but at the Pav vs what should be easier opponents:

• Tuesday, 7:00, St. Thomas
• Thursday, 7:00, Long Island
• Friday, 7:00, Auburn