Month: October 2024

I promised you that a healthy* Gopher squad would win at Columbus. I also suggested it wouldn’t be easy, and would require aggressive serving (which comes with risks) to take the Buckeyes out-of-system. But I wasn’t expecting the extreme thrill of a REVERSE SWEEP. Gophers in five, 16-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-16, 15-10. Julia Hanson’s 20+ kills keeping us alive until Set 5, which Shaffmaster, Minatee & Wooker dominated. (I think Grote got match-point.)

As the scores suggest, the Gophers got crushed in Sets 1 & 2 – not because we were playing badly so much as because we were serving cautiously, and the Buckeyes, led by the outstanding Emily Londot, were side-outing at around 90% (I’m guessing). Conversely, the Buckeyes served at Wooker all afternoon; she was okay, but her receive was not perfect like OSU’s. If the old-time scoring system had been in effect, we would have lost Set 1 15-1, because we couldn’t buy a point while serving. And we even ran out of substitutions in Set 2, requiring Wooker to serve (and she missed it).

DISCLOSURE:Things looked so hopeless at the end of Set 2, I was thinking that my headline would be Gophers were not really healthy:

• Grote, who didn’t play the final set at Penn State last Sunday, and didn’t even dress for Northwestern on Wednesday, was back in the line-up, displaying no obvious signs of injury. But she was far from the dominant Grote we’re used to seeing. 
• Wooker (who I don’t think has been healthy all season) also played most of the match (except serving), but went down awkwardly late in Set 2 – and didn’t get up, even as play continued. I think (HIPPA doesn’t apply to me speculating) Wooker has been playing with a lower-back injury, and she re-injured it on this play. She was replaced by Acevedo. But to my surprise, Wooker was back on the court a few points later.

The Gophs took their first real lead of the match at 11-7 in Set 3, but when the Buckeyes pulled to within 18-17 and 22-21, I was not feeling confident yet. And even after winning Set 3, we were tied 10-10 in Set 4. Moreover, I wasn’t seeing dramatic changes in the back & forth of play; we served just a bit more aggressively, Wooker’s receive was a little better, and we blocked a little better – all subtle stuff.

Set 5: The Buckeyes took early leads of 0-2 and 3-5. Not panic-time yet, but worrisome in a 15-pt tie-breaker. Then Hanson served her only ace of the day, Minatee converted 2 consecutive slide-kills, and Shaffmaster, who has been great in the clutch throughout her career, dominated. She scored on a block of a Gopher overpass; do you realize how difficult that is? And as she often does in fifth sets, she had 2 kills. And, at least briefly, a fired-up Wooker looked like the healthy Wooker we want to see.

This was a really important match. For one thing, road-wins against decent Big Ten Teams are rarely easy; and it gives the Gophers a 7 & 3 conference record halfway through the Big Ten season. The daunting second half of the season will include trips to Lincoln and Madison, but if the Gophers could close 7 & 3, it would give us a 14 & 6 record in the toughest conference in the country. I’m not saying they couldn’t do better than that, but I’d be happy with 14 & 6.

NEXT UP:

Friday, Nov 1, 5:00 AT 1 & 9 Michigan State, BTN+ 

Sunday, Nov 3, AT 6 & 4 Michigan, BTN+  (I haven’t seen them this year. Anyone?)

I promised you that a healthy Gopher squad would beat Northwestern (and Ohio State at Ohio State on Sunday). We were not healthy, as Lydia Grote, who did not play in Set 3 at Penn State, was not dressed (as usual, no explanation). But we swept the Wildcats without her, 25-18, 20-20, 25-17. Julia Hanson picked up the slack, with 19 kills in the 3-set match. Halfway through Set 2, the Gophs led 14-11, so at that point we had scored 39 pts for the match, some on Northwestern errors; Hanson already had 13 kills, one-third of our pts. She hit .529 for the match. Hanson is also the best of our 3 Leftsides at serve-receive. The young woman who sat in front of me tonight played with Hanson in high school (she currently plays for Bethel) couldn’t believe that Hanson rode the bench these last two years. I didn’t have an answer.

Set 1: Hanson had 5 early kills sparking the Gophs to an 8-2 lead, which soon became 16-5, and we coasted from there. Set 2: The Wildcats best set, it was tied 10-10 before the Gophs slowly pulled away, 16-12, 21-15, 25-20. Set 3: Up 8-3 and 15-4, the Gophs subbed in Schnickels at Opposite and Engeman at  Middle. The Wildcats pulled to within 22-17, but then Hanson rotated to front-row and put the match away.

Lauren Crowl, playing most of the match for the Grote recorded 5 kills and 3 blocks, and she’s a decent passer (though not part of our serve-receive). BUT, we started each set in the rotation in which Shaffmaster was front-left. Anyone familiar with a 5-1 system will immediately recognise how unusual this is, and what it says – that Coach Cook was not thrilled to have Crowl in the line-up. Crowl pounds the ball – but with limited success. I’ve been thinking that her swings are slow and overly deliberate, making her easy to dig. The aforementioned young woman in row 13 had a different theory; she thinks Crowl is afraid of getting blocked, making her easy to dig.

One of the match’s downside was our 9 service errors, 3 each by Hanson and Thibault – vs 3 aces, none by Hanson and Thibault. Hanson obviously made up for it in other ways, but Thibault was eventually replaced by Gray. On the upside, Wooker had 2 back-row kills tonight – I think that’s a career record; maybe she’s healthy?

NEXT UP: At Ohio State, noon Sunday, BTN+. The Buckeyes are 1 & 8 in the Big Ten, and they were swept by Purdue this evening (we lost to Purdue in 5). However, their loss was at Purdue (ours was at the Pav), and 2 of their 3 sets were 2-pointers. They have two excellent Leftside Hitters; their Middles didn’t do much, but partly because the Boilermakers kept the Buckeyes out-of-system most of the match. We’ll need to serve aggressively, and do so much better than we did tonight. And we need Grote back in the lineup.

Swept in 3, 16-25, 10-25, 14-25, our Gophers drop to 12 & 6, 5 & 3 in the conference. I don’t think it’s making excuses to mention, before I dig into our weaknesses, that Penn State is really good.  The Nittany Lions are 18 & 1, 10 & 0 at home, and ranked #3 in the country. I wasn’t overly impressed with their Middles, but their Setter, Libero and both Leftside Hitters are all terrific. Time & time again, the Gophers crushed the ball – only for Penn State to dig, set, and crush it right back at us. And despite this, the Gophs were within a point at 16-17 in both Set 1 & Set 2, before the roof fell in.

WEAKNESSES: 

1. The Gopher Middles, Awoleye, Minatee, and Engeman for Minatee in Set 3, had zero kills for the match – on 18 swings. Awoleye did get 8 blocks, 5 in Set 1, to keep us competitive (for ⅔ of the set). Minatee played two sets, recording zero kills (she was credited for 1 block, but I don’t think she even touched it).  Engeman replaced Minatee in Set 3* and was equally ineffective.
2. Wooker has not played like Wooker all season, and I don’t think she has been healthy all season, presumably a lower-back problem. She played the first ⅔ of Set 1, earning 3 kills (1 a dink) and a hitting % of .000, before reinjuring, and being replaced by Acevedo. Acevedo earned 5 kills and a hitting % of .000 in 2 & ⅓ sets (so roughly the same as Wooker) but Acevedo is weak on serve-receive, and it hurt us. [Think for a moment of a comparison between the Freshman Acevedo, the Junior Wooker, and 5th-yr grad-student Jenna Wenaas, now playing for Texas. I could argue that all 3 are roughly comparable as hitters. But VB teams typically depend on their Leftsides to receive serve. Wenaas was/is terrific, Wooker is adequate, and Acevedo less than adequate. She is a freshman – might get better.]
3. Grote was decent through 2 sets, 5 kills, .059, with 3 blocks, but did not play in Set 3, replaced by Crowl, essentially taking away any hope I had for a Gopher comeback.
4. By Set 3, it was Shaffmaster & Palabiyik playing their hearts out, plus Awoleye blocking and Hanson hitting (11 kills, .345), playing the deep and balanced Nittany Lions without Wooker, Minatee and Grote. [I know Wooker was injured. I don’t know why Minatee and Grote didn’t play Set 3. I hope it wasn’t because we gave up.]

NEXT UP:

• Wednesday, 8:00 at the Pav, vs Northwestern (tickets available, apparently), BTN. 
• Sunday, Noon, AT Ohio State, BTN+

I am confident that a healthy Gopher team will win both of these matches to run our record to 7 & 3 halfway through the Big Ten Season.

The Vikings also lost today (though much closer); the Lynx better save my Day.

Our Gophers lost at Rutgers last year (if I remember correctly, Shaffmaster was injured?), but they weren’t fooling around tonight, Gophs sweep, 25-13, 25-22, 25-17. Rutgers has yet to win a conference match. But it’s a tough league, they’re not terrible, and they played the Gophs even for long stretches.

Set 1: Gophers 5-5, 10-6, 16-9, & 25-13. Then Grote hitting and serving, and Shaffmaster doing everything right, to take over the set.

Set 2: After 4-4, 7-7, & 10-10, the Scarlet Knights committed 3 consecutive service errors, allowing the Gophs a little separation at 18-12. But the Scarlet Knights, playing their best V-ball of the match, came back to pull within 21-20. At 23-22, the Gophs got a side-out and Wooker, on her only serve of the evening (Acevedo has been serving for Wooker, but we may have been out of substitutions), got set-point.

Set 3: Surprisingly confident following a tight set-2, the Gophers played a lot of their bench, McGhie, Ng, Crowl and Schnickels in a 6-2, and Engeman in for Minatee. (Resting the starters for Penn State?) But it didn’t hurt us, 4-0, 10-3, 16-5, & 25-17.

Big Match Sunday at Penn State. (Again BTN+? I don’t get it.)

Maryland won Set 1 last week at #3 Penn State, and only lost Set 3 by 2 pts — but they were no more challenging tonight at the Pav, Gophers 25-21, 25-15, 25-18, than last night’s Hoosiers. Coach Cook felt so confident after burying the Terrapins in Set 2, that he played our #3 Middle Kali Engeman in place of Minatee in Set 3. It made me nervous when Engeman made a couple of mistakes and we were tied 13-13, but Cook stayed with Engeman and she redeemed herself with a couple of blocks.

Grote and Hanson had 12 kills apiece, 2 each from the back-row, and Awoleye had a ton of blocks. The Official Gopher Website Headline touts Awoleye with a Pavillion-record 14 blocks – but I had her with 9. Why the difference? When we put up a double-block, and it succeeds, the official stats give both players credit for a block. But using this system, they gave Grote 7, blocks, Hanson 5, and Wooker, Shaffmaster & Engeman 3 apiece and Minatee 1. That’s 36 blocks in 3 sets; what an incredible performance! Except we only had 19 blocks (still a good night). By either measure, Awoleye dominated the Terrapins.

Wooker again played the entire match (except that Acevedo serves for her). Her hitting totals were modest, 6 kills, but she also passed well. I had Wooker with 3 ”poor-receives” (zero official errors) , but she is clearly our second best receiver (after Palabiyik), so great to have Wooker back.

Speaking of  having Wooker back, the Gophers stunk last week at Southern Cal, but we weren’t even close to healthy. When healthy, which we may be now, if Wooker is fully healthy, this squad beat Texas on a neutral court, beat Wisconsin at the Pav, and never lost a set (we weren’t healthy in our 5-set win at UCLA either) against 8 mediocre teams, along with losing four 5-setters to ranked teams. Not bad at all. (Important to stay healthy!)

NEXT UP:

Friday, Oct. 16, 6:00, at Rutgers, BTN+

Sunday, Oct. 20, at #3 Penn State, BTN+

Even on the road, we should sweep this weak Rutgers squad. Winning at State College won’t be easy, but Maryland came within a few points of the Nittany Lions. Right now, we’re 11 & 5 overall, 4 & 2 in the Big Ten; the odds are, that by the end of next weekend, we’ll be 12 & 6, and 5 & 3. But I think our chances of coming away 13 & 5 are better than our chances of coming  away 11 & 7. (Odd, I think, that this top-15 matchup won’t be broadcast, at least on BTN.)

With the starting lineup back on the court (no Crowl, Acevedo only serving), the Gophers swept the Hoosiers, 25-18, 25-19, 25-19. I couldn’t tell during warmups if Wooker was going to play or not, but she started the match. She looked a bit tentative at first, or maybe just rusty, and with the Gophs up narrowly, at 19-16, she did not yet have a kill, But then she had 3 convincing kills in a row, putting us up 22-16.

Grote led the Gophs with 13 kills and a 565%, but well-balanced past that; Minatee & Hanson with 8 apiece (2 of Hanson’s from the back row), Wooker had 7 and Awoleye 6 – plus 7 blocks (the official Gophers stats gave Awoleye 10 blocks, but they count funny). But it’s Wooker’s return to the lineup that allows Grote to play Opposite, where she is comfortable, versus filling in for Wooker at Leftside.

And our “receive,” of Palabiyik, Wooker and either Thibault or Hanson was sooo much better than the past two weekends. I felt that the Hoosiers served aggressively all night, but we had minimal difficulty. Wooker had the only 2 errors, and that’s not bad as they were serving at her all night, And being “in system” on roughly 70% (I’m guessing) of our sideout attempts gave our Middles a chance to hit, which they did. Thibault looked better than last week also.

Speaking of Middle Hitting, last season and early this season, Minatee could only score on “slides,” and Awoleye only on “quicks.” (plus the random overpass) limiting the element of surprise in our attack. But tonight, Minatee had 3 quicks to go with her 5 slides, and 3 of Awoleye’s kills were slides. If we can keep this up against strong teams, we will have a much better chance of victory.

I also want to repeat something I wrote a couple weeks ago about Palabiyik’s improvement. Last year, we played the first half of the season without a D.S. (and it hurt us) because Coach Cook didn’t seem to trust Palabiyik. And pre-season, I was skeptical if she could handle the Libero position. But set after set, she “saves” multiple points with spectacular digs; I have become a big Palabiyik fan.

Indiana does not appear to be among the top teams in the Big Ten, and we should have swept them, as we did. Maryland, tomorrow’s night’s opponent (5:00, BTN) doesn’t look much better, but they did win a set at #3 Penn State.

In multiple respects:

• First 4-set loss, 23-25, 25-22, 11-25, 18-25 (no 3-set losses)
• Worst set (11-25 in Set 3) of the season.
• Worst composite score, Gophers 77, Trojans 97, of the season, and 
• Out-played in every aspect.

I warned Readers that USC was better than their #22 rating. And I warned Readers that the shorthanded Gophers might not have much left in the tank, playing back-to-back matches on the road. But I did not know how short handed. I said, in my account of Friday’s night match vs UCLA, that Hanson was essentially A.W.O.L.; what I did not know when writing that, was that Hanson was playing while ill. And likely not at 100% tonight either. And Acevedo, who came off the bench to help the Gophers take Set 5 from UCLA, contributed little against Southern Cal. I’ve written before about knowing an old VB coach who often said, “A volleyball team is only as good as their Leftside Hitters.” This weekend, with Wooker not dressed, Hanson under the weather, and Acevedo unable to pick up the slack, we were not very good.

Individually, Lydia Grote was the only consistent bright spot of the match, following last night’s 13-kill match vs UCLA with 16 against USC. After the disastrous Set-3, Coach Cook pulled Acevedo, moved Grote to Leftside, and plugged in Crowl at Opposite. I was dismissive of Crowls contribution in the victory over UCLA, but she was one of the few bright spots of the match, with 4 kills in 1 set, vs 2 kills in 3 sets for Acevedo. But for most of the match, Grote was our only weapon – and the Trojans knew it. My unofficial stats:

• Grote 16 kills,
• Hanson 9
• Shaffmaster and Crowl 4 a piece,
• Awoleye and Minatee 3 a piece. Not enough balance!

Acevedo has been especially weak in serve-receive, so Cook replaces her with our D.S., Thibault when she’s back row. But I think I overrated Thibault, she’s no better than Acevedo.. The other surprise was a rare appearance by Engemann in Set-3, who got 2 kills in a set and a half.  All in all, we were lucky to get a split in our L.A. weekend. 

NEXT UP are Indiana on Friday at 6:30, BTN+ and Maryland, Saturday, 5:00, BTN, both games at the Pav. The Gopher need to sweep these home matches. Be nice to have Wooker back.

25-21, 25-22, 25-27, 20-25, 15-10, in front of a Pauley Pavillion crowd of about 100 people, half of them Grote’s relatives. With Wooker still not dressed, and having lost faith in Acevedo (her passing, presumably, not her serving or hitting), Coach Cook played Grote at Left-side, and Crowl at Opposite. 

Sets 1 & 2: Not much offense from any of our pins. (I like Lauren Crowl, but), Crowl is rarely productive, Grote is much less productive from Left-side, and Hanson might as well been riding the bench with Acevedo. But with help from Minatee’s slides, and strong blocking from Awoleye, Shaffmaster was able to will the Gophers to narrow victories. I think she had 5 kills, 2 blocks and two aces in these first 2 sets, both Aces while bringing us back from a 3-9 deficit to 13-13 in Set 2.

Set 3: We played the Bruins even – except for terrible serve-receiving. Crowl was especially in-effective en route to a 16-21 deficit. Crowl had a couple of kills in a mini-comeback, but too little too late.

Set 4: Desperate, Cook went back to Acevedo, Crowl to the bench. Acevedo didn’t do much, and he even tried Schnickels, also a non-factor. But at least we got, more production from Grote, back at her more normal Right-side position. As even as the 2 pt margin suggests, from down 15-17, there were 13 consecutive side-outs; we earned a point on our serve to tie it at 23-23, but then at 25-25, the Bruins got the side-out and stole a point for the win.

Set 5: The Bruins were led all evening by their big Middle, Dotson. But at 6-6, she rotated out and after a side-out, McGhie came in to serve for the Gophs and ran 5 pts – nothing fancy, just putting the ball in play. Acevedo got a couple of kills. The Bruins scraped back to 13-10 and got Dotson back on the court, but then made two unforced errors to give the match away. It was their 2nd 5-setter of the season, vs 7 for the Gophs. An ugly win, but we’ll take it. (The Lynx won too.)

It was Midnight, here, by the time the match ended, and our gals internal clocks are on Central time; hard to imagine we’ll have much left in the tank tomorrow night vs the underrated Trojans.

Our Gophers, now elevated to #12 (seems odd?) after last weekend’s victory over #7 Wisconsin and loss to #10 Purdue. This weekend, we get unranked UCLA and #22 Southern Cal. Should be an easier weekend, right? Probably not. For one thing, we were at the Pav for both matches last week, but we’ll be in L.A. this weekend; our only true road win this season was at Wis GB. Secondly, Southern Cal seems way underrated; the Trojans are 9 & 3; their only losses to #1 Pitt, #2 Nebraska, and #6 Creighton. And the Bruins are probably better than their 7-4 record suggests. Both lost at Lincoln and beat the Buckeyes at home. I had a chance to see a little of both last week, UCLA at Nebraska, and Southern Cal hosting Ohio State.

UCLA,, Friday, 9:00 p.m, BTN+: The Bruins lost to Taylor Landfair’s Huskers (yes, after riding the bench during the non-conference schedule, Landfair appears to now be one of Nebraska’s starting Leftsides), but they didn’t go down easy,  22-25, 10-25, 25-23, 22-25. The Bruins resemble the Gophers in that they have strong “pins,” but less strong Middles. We might have an advantage at Setter and Libero.

Southern Cal, Saturday, 10:00 p.m, BTN: The Trojans were less competitive in Lincoln than the Bruins, losing in straight  sets, but their powerful serving was the difference in their close )19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 15-13 win over Ohio State. The Trojans had only 8 aces, but they had the Buckeyes out-of-system for most of the match. And serve-receive is not the Gophers’ strong suit.