Month: December 2024

In late August, prior to our first match, our Gophers were ranked #18 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll. I wrote at the time that this ranking was about right, and that a plausible “stretch-goal” for the ‘24 Gophs was to finish 5th in the Big 10, and make the Sweet Sixteen. So I was, in a sense, dead-on regarding the “stretch;” we finished tied for 6th, were invited to the Tournament and won our first match – but fell short of the Sweet Sixteen. But my highly accurate overall prediction was despite being way off the mark in my assessment of our strengths and weaknesses. 

My biggest disappointment was our serve-receive. Shedding Landfair (she had a great year for Nebraska, but they never let her touch a serve-receive), and with the maturing of Palabiyik and the addition of Thibault, I thought we would be improved over 2023. But serve-receive continued to be our Achilles Heel, costing us match after match.

The biggest individual disappointment was Wooker, who I predicted would have a great year. She did not, but to me, the reason was obvious; she injured her lower back early, and played hurt (sometimes sat out) most of the season. Wooker is a talented player, and I firmly believe that if Wooker had been healthy all season, we would have won at least a couple of the matches we lost, especially the 5-setters, and would have finishhed at least a 5th place team – which would have resulted in a higher seed, and an easier path to the Sweet Sixteen. (It is important to remember, of course, that injuries are part of sports, Louisville lost the NCAA Championship Match missing their best player, who rolled her ankle in the Semis.) 

I also over-estimated Acevedo. A strong exhibition match vs Iowa State caused me to think Acevedo was ready to contribute at the Big 10 level, but she was not. Serving for Wooker, Acevedo led the team in aces with 37 (just barely, Grote had 35, and Hanson 33), and with a plus 11 was the only Gopher with positive numbers for aces-minus-errors. But her .121 hitting % was anemic (Hanson .268, Grote .234 & Wooker .193), and for most of the season, Acevedo’s passing was less than adequate. (She came on a little toward the end of the season.) My thought is that Acevedo was a freshman playing like a freshman. She’ll be better next year.

Some of my expectations were met. I expected Grote to play great, and she did, making First Team ALL-BIG TEN. I expected our Middles to be weak, and they were – except, oddly, for the two matches vs the Badgers. I thought the Badger Middles would dominate, but somehow Awoleye and Minatee out-played them. (Still not sure how.) Overall, Awoleye had more success blocking than I anticipated, and was named Second Team ALL-BIG TEN, but she produced minimal offense. Minatee was streaky, playing great vs Wisconsin, and in a couple other matches, but completely missing in action in several matches. She was a sophomore, and could get better.

Fortunately, my over-estimation of Wooker and Acevedo were off-set by my under-estimation of Hanson and Shaffmaster, both of whom were, deservedly, named First Team ALL-BIG TEN and All American Honorable Mention. 

Expectations were high when Left-side Hitter Julia Hanson arrived in the spring of 2022 as the Strib’s 2021 Metro H.S. Player of the Year, but then spent the 2022 season mostly on the bench behind Landfair, Wooker and Wenaas. In 2023, it was Landfair, Wooker and Grote keeping Hanson out of the Gophers’ front row, although Hanson did get the opportunity to demonstrate her effectiveness as a back-row hitter. (I have to admit that I wasn’t a fan of subbing Hanson into the back-row – because the 2023 team needed a second strong serve-receiver more than a fourth hitter.) Whatever, we never got the chance to see what Hanson could do as a 6-rotation hitter; I thought she would be okay, but I wasn’t 100% certain that she would even beat out Acevedo for our second-best (behind Wooker) Left-side.

Hanson was terrific in 2024, leading the team with 473 kills (Grote 2nd with 333), 4.01 kills per set (Grote 2nd with 2.90), and a strong hitting efficiency of .268.  Many of her kills were the “shock & awe” variety, and many (around 15%, the Gopher stats don’t track this) were out of the back-row. She out-hit Wenaas in our signature win over Texas, and out-hit Landfair in Lincoln. (We lost to Nebraska in 4 sets, but we were one of very few teams to win even 1 set in Lincoln.) I wouldn’t describe Hanson as a great passer, but she was the best passer of our hitters, and far from the weak-link in our serve-receive. (I wish she had more than 1 year of eligibility left.)

Zeynab Palabiyik also played very well. I assumed she would be our every-day Libero, and hoped she would deliver. She exceed my expectations,

SHAFFMASTER ERA FINALE

Under-estimating MELANIE SHAFFMASTER is all on me; she had played better every year she wore Maroon & Gold, frosh to soph, soph to junior, etc. and continued this trend by playing even better in her 5th, Covid-Bonus season. My anticipation of Stella Swenson running the Gopher offense is understandable, but it doesn’t justify my pre-season lack of enthusiasm for Shaffmaster’s final season.

For 5 seasons, Shaffmaster provided the Gophers with a truly unique skill-set with which to run the Gopher offense. Comparing Shaffmaster’s career stats with those of, say, Samantha Seliger-Swenson (I cannot find stats for Laurie Berg), is unfair to  Seliger-Swenson in that, due to Covid, Shaffmaster played 5 seasons. But dividing Shaffmaster’s stats by 5 and Seliger-Swenson’s by 4, to produce “season averages,” isn’t fair to Shaffmaster, because the 2020 Covid-season wasn’t a full season. So, I think the fairest comparison is to throw out Shaffmaster’s 2020 Covid-season and look at her 2021-2024 stats. 

Over these 4 seasons, Shaffmaster posted 4,442 assists, 383 kills and 313 blocks, averaging 1,111 assists, 96 kills and 78 blocks per season. By comparison, 3-time First-Team All-American Seliger-Swenson posted 1,415 assists, 50 kills and 56.5 blocks per season. (And I’ll throw in another comparison: Nebraska’s Bergen Reilly, the 2024 Big 10 Setter of the Year posted 1,352 assists, 81 kills and 62 blocks this season.) Comparing stats is never apples-to-apples because there were different players around them, but this comparison highlights the difference one would expect: Shaffmaster, not quite as quick on her feet, annually produced 21% fewer assists than Seliger-Swenson’s (18% fewer than Reilly), but 92% more kills than Seliger-Swenson, and 38% more blocks (19% & 26% more than Reilly). I am unable to locate all-time Gopher, Big 10 or NCAA Records for kills or blocks by Setters, but given her skill-set, and that she played 4.7 seasons as the Gopher Setter, it is very likely that Shaffmaster now holds (and will forever pending another pandemic) multiple all-time records for kills and blocks by Setters. Shaffmaster was also “clutch;” coming up with her biggest plays in critical situations. Regardless of how well Stella performs in coming years (I’m thinking great), I will long-remember the Shaffmaster-Era.

All in all, the 2024 Gopher Volleyball season provided thrilling victories, disappointing defeats, and ended about the way I expected.

UP NEXT (after the holidays): MY 2025 PREVIEW.

Our tied-for-6th-place-in -the-Big-10, 6-seed in the region, Gophers, on the road at the SEC Champion, 3-seed Kentucky Wildcats, weren’t supposed to win, and we didn’t, Kentucky in four, 11-25, 25-23, 22-25 & 24-26. The set-scores tell the story as well as I can; we were horrible in Set 1, very competitive after that, with long, hard-fought points featuring spectacular saves on both sides. But not quite enough, so, for the second year in a row, no Sweet Sixteen.

And tonight’s Gophs looked very much like the team we’ve been watching all season:

• Hanson led our hitters with 15 kills (inc 2 from the back-row); 
• Grote had 13 kills;
• Wooker 11 (inc 3 dinks);
• Shaffmaster added 5 kills;
• Awoleye had 4 blocks and Minatee (a pleasant surprise) 4 also; and
• Acevedo led the Gophs in both aces (3) and service errors (4).

No Gopher was off their game; but nobody really stepped up – the way we needed to pull off the upset. Thinking back, Awoleye and Minatee were unexpectedly dominant in our upsets of Texas and Wisconsin, but merely competitive, tonight, vs good Wildcat Middles.

I’ve written often about our one, weak, half-rotation, the one where our serve-receive is Hanson-Palabiyik-Wooker and our front-row hitters are Grote at Leftside and Wooker Rightside.

Set 1: We started the match with this as our first-receive, and were down 0-4 before the crowd was seated – poor choice, I think, by Coach Cook. Set 2: Grote’s best set. We were tied 4-4, 7-7, 11-11, before falling behind 11-18, but pulled ahead 18-17 with Shaffmaster serving (same front row, but Grote and Wooker can switch across to their natural positions on our serve). When Kentucky finally put a ball down, I thought uh-oh, here it comes. But the Wildcat’s star, SEC Player-of-the-Year, Brooklyn Deleye served long, we rotated, and Acevedo served back-to-back aces for a 3-pt lead, Kentucky pulled within one at 24-23, but then served into the net. Set 3: Down only 5-6, Kentucky ran 4 points vs our weak rotation to make it 5-10, and we basically traded sideouts the rest of the set. Set 4: As in Set 2, we were tied 4-4, 7-7, 11-11, before Kentucky ran 4 points vs our weak rotation, as in Set 3, to go up 12-16. Back in better rotations, we went ahead 20-18, and we could taste a fifth set. But it didn’t happen. The existence of a chronically weak half-rotation is not necessarily poor coaching; your roster is your roster, and the rules require you to rotate. But I wouldn’t have started the match in that rotation.

In a week or two, I’ll post my thoughts (and yours if you’ll send them to me) about the 2024 season, and also my thoughts (and yours) about  next year. John

We needed a win over Western Kentucky to advance, and we got it, 25-22, 25-20, 19-25 & 25-23. But it wasn’t easy, especially Set 4, when we trailed 14-19, and it felt like we were headed for another all-too-familiar 5-setter. 

• All four sets started 4-4. 
• Set 1 stayed tied to 15-15 before the Gophs took over. (Zero service errors for the Gophs in Set 1.) 
• The Gophs pulled away early in Set 2, helped by 8 service errors by the Hilltoppers. (An astonishing 18 for the 4-set match! VS 1 ace. ) 
• In Set 3, we were tied at 11-11 when the wheels fell off, part of that in our chronically-weak half-rotation, where Grote is hitting Left-side and Acevedo, hitting for Wooker, at Right-side. But our offense stayed basically dormant even after rotating Hanson, not her usually dominant self, to the front-row.
• The middle of Set 4 was just as grim. At one point, Coach Cook subbed Schnickels in for Grote (who had gone cold anyway) for stronger blocking, but it didn’t help. Then with Hanson (never our best server) serving, the Hilltoppers made a series of unforced errors to square the set at 19-19. We fell behind again 21-23, got a side-out and rotated to what should have been Acevedo’s serve. But instead (we may have been out of substitutions?), we had Wooker serve – the Wooker that hasn’t served all year because her error rate was sky-high – and she nailed an Ace to tie it up at 23-23. We earned another point to reach match-point, and then the Hilltoppers made another unforced error.

The Hilltoppers, who came in with a winning streak of 22 matches, outhit our Gophs .250 to .186, but served themselves out of the match. They can’t possibly have served that poorly during their 22 win-streak; my guess is they watched video of the Gophers humiliating 0-3 loss to Washington, and thought they too could beat the Gophs with aggressive serving. Then again, if they had served more cautiously, we probably would have hit better.

NEXT UP: Probably Kentucky, tomorrow, 6:30 maybe(?), maybe ESPN?

As I feared, the NCAA Selection Committee was not impressed with the Gophers 10-loss, tied for sixth-place in the Big 10 record. Instead of a 4-seed, conferring home court for the first 2 rounds, they assigned us a 6-seed, and we will be headed to Lexington Kentucky. Our first round opponent will be Western Kentucky, and if we advance, our second round opponent will likely be the Kentucky Wildcats.

I won’t complain for 2 reasons:

• A 4-seed was a lot to ask with 10-losses and tied for sixth-place; and
• A 6-seed draws an 11-seed, followed by a 3-seed, followed by a 2-seed; whereas a 4-seed draws an 13-seed, followed by a 5-seed, followed by a 1-seed. In other words, a  6-seed’s path to the Sweet 16 is tougher than a 4-seed’s path, but a 6-seed’s path to the Elite-8 is easier than a 4-seed’s path.

Western Kentucky went 18 & 0 in their seemingly weak CUSA conference, but they lost to Illinois and Michigan State, and I don’t see any signature wins on their resume. We should beat them.

Kentucky went 14 & 2 to win the SEC, one game ahead of Texas. SEC V-ball is not Big 10 V-ball, but they deserve a higher seed than the Gophs. But they’re beatable. Among the teams that beat them are Nebraska, Penn St., Purdue, Stanford & Texas; we lost to the first 4 of these, but beat Texas. Kentucky is definitely beatable, even on their court..