The Gophs opened the season with a 5-set loss to Stanford, in Milwaukee, losing Set 5 by 13-15. Then they beat Texas in 5 sets, also in Milwaukee, winning Set 5 by 15-7. And then tonight, they lost to Baylor, at Baylor, losing Set 5 by 14-16. (For the record, we’re 42 to 38 in fifth sets.) No shame in losing in 5 to Stanford, and no shame in losing to unbeaten Baylor, on their home court, either. And every match has been great volleyball.
It was , in several ways, an unusual match. Set-by-set, tonight’s score was 25-23, 16-25, 21-25, 25-17, and 14-6, so, despite the close-as-it-gets match, two of the sets were lopsided . And sideouts were relatively rare, with both teams stringing significant runs. For example;
In Set 1, we were up 10-5, then down 16-18 and 20-22, before winning 25-22;
In Set 2, with Wooker stinking it up, we were down 1-8 right away;
In Set 3, we were up 19-16 before losing 21-25;
In Set 4, we were up 9-4 almost right away; and
In Set 5, we were down 4-10, but battled back to earn the first match point opportunity at 15-14.
The individual Gopher performances were even odder:
Two of our pins continued their strong play. I had Grote with 16 kills, 2 blocks and 2 aces, and Hanson with 15 kills and 2 aces, but Wooker, who started the match (as she has for every match in her career), was benched halfway through Set 2, and replaced by freshman AlexAcevedo. Acevedo seemed not the answer in Sets 2 & 3, but got hot and sparked the lopsided Set 4 victory, finishing the match with 12 kills, playing only roughly 3 sets.
Minatee, who played well against Texas, continued her run with 11 kills and 4 blocks. But Owoleye was basically invisible; she played the entire match, yet I had her with one kill and one block.
Maybe Wooker and/or Owoleye were ill (Owoleye stayed in the game because we don’t really have a viable third middle). Or maybe not! I thought, going into the season, that Wooker was our #1 Leftside, Hanson the #2, and Acevedo strictly an emergency back-up #3. But Hanson has been the star Left in these first 3 matches, and after tonight, Acevedo looks like #2. And going into the season, I thought Owoleye was marginal and Minatee less than that, but in these first 3 matches, Minatee looks like a star, and Owoleye less than adequate.
In tonight’s 4:00 match, 0 and 3 Wisconsin got their first win, also in 5 sets, vs TCU. Tomorrow, we play TCU at 4:00 (on 18 hours rest) and the Badgers (on 24 hours rest) get Baylor.
(Ran into GopherVBallRocks reader R.S. today at the Laughing Waters Bluegrass Festival. He mentioned reading my account of the Stanford match, but said he hadn’t seen Maureen’s photo with the team, because R.S. only reads the first bullet. Come on folks, scroll down to SUPERFAN AT THE FAIR to see the photo.
Gophs over #1 Ranked Texas, 22-25, 25-19, 25-20, 13-25, 15-7!!! My apologies to GopherVBallRocks readers, I clearly underestimated this team when I said it would be encouraging if our Gophs could win one set each against #5 Stanford and #1 Texas. I had also suggested that our #18 rating was “about right” (implying that I didn’t think the Gophs were a top-ten team). We should be now.
I also underestimated Shaffmaster, Hanson, Palabiyik & Minatee: Shaffmaster – I said last year that Shaffmaster was the best clutch player on the team, and yet I was comfortable with the idea that it was time to move on to freshman Stella Swenson, who I think might be a better pure setter. But the multi-tool Shaffmaster was the MVP of tonights’ match, with 44 assists, 6 kills, 4 aces (only 1 service error), 1 block, and at least 3 miraculous saves; giving her 84 assists, 10 kills, 7 aces, and 3 blocks for the weekend, vs two top-5 teams. The FS1 announcers said that Standford’s Miner was the best setter in the country (and she might be), but Miner doesn’t fill up the scorecard like Shaffmaster can. Hanson – When Freshman Alex Acevedo outplayed Hanson in last week’s exhibition match vs Iowa State, I speculated that Hanson’s role as our #2 Left-side might be in jeopardy; and I complimented her on “keeping up” with Wooker in yesterday’s 5-set loss to Stanford. But Hanson was Shaffmaster’s # 1 weapon tonight, with 19 kills, including 3 from the back-row, and 2 dinks. (The first successful dinks of her Gopher career?) Palabiyik – In yesterday’s post, re the Stanford loss, I noted that “Palabiyik had some terrific digs, but” was victimized at serve-receive, and speculated that D.S. Kate Thibault might challenge Palabiyik for the off-color jersey. Not tonight; Palabiyik had terrific dig after terrific dig, and received well enough that Texas stopped serving at her. Minatee – I’ve been saying all winter and spring that our Middles were weak, and, though I may not have written this, I thought Owoleye was closer to adequate than Minatee. But Minatee showed up big-time against Texas, with 8 kills (all on slides) and 4 blocks (at least a couple against reigning National Player of the Year Avery Skinner). If she can play like that consistently, we’re not as weak as I thought.
SET 1 was close all the way. We never led by more than 1 point, but we were tied 4-4, 10-10, and 16-16, and pulled within 1 at 22-23 before losing the last 2 points. SET 2 started tight, tied 9-9, and then the Gophers jumped out to 20-14 (no one player, that I recall, a team effort), and hung on to tie the match. SET 3 was all Gophers, 9-5 14-8 and 20-14, coasting to victory. SET 4 was disastrous. After a strong 6-2 start, Texas won 23 of the next 30 points to force a 5th set. It was hard not to think about yesterday’s loss to Stanford, where the Gophers led 2 sets to one, got crushed in Set 4, and got off to a slow start in the deciding set. But tonight’s SET 5 was very different. Shaffmaster served the Gophs (2 of her 4 aces) to a 5-0 lead – and Texas couldn’t stop us.
I hate to criticize anything in such a marvelous weekend, but if you want to find flaws, here are some Issues to consider:
Three times yesterday, Stanford’s Jordyn Harvey exploited the Gopher serve -receive issues, with runs of at least 5 points. Texas didn’t seem to have a server as effective as Harvey, but by Set 4, they had decided to pick on Wooker – and Wooker did not meet the challenge.
We cut our service errors almost in half (23 vs Stanford, 13 vs Texas) but our ace-to-error ratio for the weekend was 16 to 36; with Wooker a dismal 4 to 11
In these first two matches, (not counting 1 overpass-kill each) Minatee has had 11 kills, and all 11 were on slides, zero quicks. And Owoleye has had 7 kills, 6 on quicks and 1 slide. As we get into the Big Ten Season, teams are going to scout that.
Tonight’s Set 4 collapse came mostly with the Gophers in our weak rotation — the one with Wooker hitting out-of-position at Right-side, and Grote hitting out-of-position at Left-side. There is no easy way to avoid this as one of our 12 half-rotations, but we have to find a way to generate some offense here.
But let’s rub it in while we can, the #18 Gophers played two matches, in Milwaukee, vs the #5 & #1 teams in the country, and came away 1 & 1 (5 & 5 in sets). The #3 Badgers played the same two teams, in the same arena (last I looked, Milwaukee is in Wisconsin), and came out 0 & 2 (2 & 6 in sets).
I predicted it would take a miracle for the Gophs to beat either #5 ranked Stanford today, or #1 ranked Texas tomorrow, and they almost pulled one off today, pushing Stanford to the edge before losing 28-26, 23-25, 25-16, 13-25 & 13-15. As you might expect from a back & forth 5-set match, the play was fairly even. For the match, we out-hit Stanford .302 to .222, and out-blocked them too.
The big difference in the match was serving; especially by Cardinal Left-side Hitter Jordyn Harvey, who terrorized the Gophers with her serve. Harvey, only had 7 pure aces, but served points in bunches, and at critical moments. As a team, the Cardinal had 12 aces and 12 service-errors – I’d take that number any day; but the Gophers had 9 aces and 23 errors. I know that some GopherVBallRocks Readers will want the Gophers to serve more conservatively, and maybe that’s a good idea vs unranked teams. But I don’t think this squad has the fire-power to beat a top-5 team without service pressure; the only way we’re going to do that is by hitting our aggressive serves.
SET 1: Our offense got off to a terrible start. Shaffmaster got the Gophers’ first kill of the match (4 total, for the match, a good number) to tie the set at 8-8, and not counting an attack by Wooker that was blocked out of bounds by the Cardinal, Grote got our first convincing kill at about 15-15. This woke Wooker and Hanson up, and the Gophs took a commanding 24-19 lead. But after a side-out, 24-20, Harvey rotated to the serve and ran 5 pts to give Stanford a set-point. We finally got a side-out off Harvey and escaped, 28-26.
SET 2: Tight all the way, with ties at 6-6, 10-10, 16-16, and 22-22, before losing 23-25. SET 3: Tight to start, tied 7-7, but then Hanson and Grote started pounding the ball, and the Gophers cruised, 25-16. Harvey did not generate a run in either set, and the Gophers were up 2 sets to 1.
SET 4: Tied at 2-2, Harvey ran 4 to put the Cardinal up 2-6. We traded sideouts for six rotations, and then, at 8-14, Harvey ran 5 to put the Cardinal up 8-19. Coach Cook subbed out Shaffmaster and other starters to rest them for the decisive fifth set.
SET 5: After another poor start, we were down 2-6, but Wooker got hot, Slylar Gray had back-to-back aces, and we took a 8-7 lead. We fell behind 9-11, but pulled back to tie at 13-13 before Stanford scored the last 2 points to win the match. Honestly, it felt like we had a 50-50 chance to win.
INDIVIDUALLY
Julie Hanson, new to her role as a starting Left-side Hitter after playing behind Landfair for two years, tied Wooker for most kills in the match, 14 (on fewer swings).
Wooker looked like the Wooker we know as a hitter, but blocked and received and dug better than she did most of last year.
Opposite Lydia Grote had slightly fewer kills. 11, but a better hitting percentage than either.
Freshman Left-side Alex Acevedo, who looked so good against Iowa State in last week’s exhibition, did not play. I think she was available
Middles Phoebe Awoleye and Calissa Minatee blocked reasonably well, 4 & 3, and got a few kills, 6 & 4. As was typical last year, all of Awoleye’s kills came on “quicks,” and all of Minatee’s came on “slides.” At least for this match, our Middles weren’t the problem or the solution.
Shaffmaster played like only Shaffmaster can, 40 assists, 4 kills, 2 blocks, 3 aces (3 serving errors), and 2 spectacular saves.
I am curious to see what will happen, as the season unfolds, with our 2 Liberos, Zeynep Palabiyik and Kate Thibault, both sophomores. Not surprisingly, Palabiyik, who was with the team last year, played Libero in today’s match, and was part of every serve-receive formation; while Thibault, a transfer, played D.S., so naturally fewer touches. Palabiyik had some terrific digs, but was part of the receive trashed by Stanford’s Harvey. Thibault was on the court almost half the match, and fairly inconspicuous – which is sorta what you want from your D.S.
TOMORROW, 6:30, FS1, The Gophers take on #1 rated Texas – who crushed #3 rated Wisconsin in 4 sets today 30-28, 23-25, 25-15, 25-11. (I didn’t see any of it, but from the box score, it appears that the Badgers played the Longhorns even through two sets – and then folded.) I’d be thrilled if the Gophers could make the Longhorns work a little harder than that.
SUPERFAN AT THE FAIR
I write the blog (I know how the rotations for a 6-2 with a Lib and DS works), but Maureen is the GVB superfan in our house. (You do not want to sit next to her when the Gophs lose a set.) The State Fair is also one of Maureen’s passions, and last week, two of her passions collided (3, if you count her grandchildren who were also there.)
L to R, Kali Engeman, Syd Schnichels, Maureen Trepp, Lydia Grote, and “The Wooker.”
(BTW, Maureen is 5-7, barefoot)
I wasn’t there, but here’s the story as I heard it: Maureen, our two daughters, and various grandkids are at the Fair (one of the 3 days they went). There’s a group of 6 tall coeds, buying corn, or whatever. Maureen screams, “It’s The Wooker,” and runs at them. As she approaches, her scream changed to “Wooker and Grote.”
They had a nice chat, with Maureen mentioning that we’re season-ticket holders, and maybe even mentioning GopherVBallRocks. The players expressed appreciation for her support, and then 4 of the 6 posed for this photo.
