Month: April 2025

Last Saturday, in Brookings, our Gophers not only lost a pair of 3-set matches, to South Dakota State and Creighton, and they did not, in my opinion, look very good – and I would hate to have that taste in my mouth for the next 4 ½ months. (Technically, the Gophs finish their Spring Season two weeks from today out west, but I won’t be there.) Fortunately, for my state of mind at least, they looked significantly better this afternoon at the Pav, sweeping 4 sets from St. Thomas, 25-12, 25-23, 25-13 & 25-23.

There were two obvious differences. First, St Thomas isn’t as good as SDSU or Creighton. Creighton is a powerhouse, certainly top-20 nationally, maybe better; and SDSU, though a Summit League Team as is St Thomas, went 15 & 1 in the Summit last fall; St Thomas went 10 & 6. Though I certainly hope that we would beat SDSU and be competitive with Creighton if we play them next fall.

Second, Julie Hanson. Hanson, who didn’t play at all last week (I still don’t know why) was far and away the dominant player in today’s match. With a brief opportunity to speak to Hanson after the match, I said, “Missed you last week.” Her response was a forlorn nod of agreement; which didn’t reveal much.

Last week’s Leftsides were a steady diet of Acevedo plus a mix of Gilk and Crowl, both playing out of position. Today we got 4 sets worth of Hanson, plus a mix of Acevedo, Gilk and a little Crowl. And Hanson wasted little time announcing her return to the line-up, with 4 thunderous kills in the first 8 points of the match. Hanson plays at a whole different level than Acevedo.

I also had a brief exchange with Wooker, once again present in sweats. “Are you recovering from surgery,” I asked. Her response was, “I’m recovering,” which might have been a “yes,” or I’m recovering but haven’t had surgery. Plus an encouraging nod. [If I was an accredited reporter representing a major media outlet, I’d be pushier. But I’m not and it seems a little intrusive. I wish her the best.]

I think the Gophs can be really good next year with Hanson plus a 100% healthy Wooker and/or a Kinney who arrives on campus ready to compete at a high-level. I am, I’m sorry to say, not feeling great about our chances with Acevedo in the starting lineup.

And then there’s the competition for next fall’s starting Opposite. A month ago, I wrote that this might be a 3-woman competition including Schnickels, but nothing I’ve seen this Spring makes me think that Schnickels is a serious contender. Last week I wrote that, although the 5th-year Senior Crowl will probably start the first match of the season, I expected the Freshman Gilk to be the starter by the end of the season. But today, vs St. Thomas, Crowl was clearly more effective than Gilk. Then again, more than half of Gilk’s swings came from Leftside, clearly not her position.

HOW GOOD IS STELLA?

Two years ago, when it was confirmed that Stella would be wearing Maroon & Gold, I told you that you would come to love Stella. And I still believe that. But Stella being ready to dominate the Big Ten in her Red-shirt Freshman season is a different question. Playing last week without a dominant Leftside, and today with only one, I can’t tell for sure. One thing I feel confident about is that we will see more Middle-Offense from this fall’s Gophers. P.S., no sign of the leg injury from last week.

3 LIBEROS AT A TIME?

Once again, in today’s Set 1, we got a glimpse of what the Gophers could look like with 3 Liberos the court at the same time (technically, 1 Libero, Palabiyik, and 2 Defensive Specialists, Thibault and Garr) — in Set 1, no less – the Set where both teams were playing their first-string, and which the Gophs dominated, 25-12. With Palabiyik and Thibault both Juniors next fall, Coach Cook  could decide to red-shirt the Freshman Garr. He could have Thibault and Garr compete for one starting DS position (I continue to have reservations about Thibault’s serve-receive). Or, despite potential concerns about substitution-limits, he might really play all 3 at once. If he does, opponents will no longer get rich dinking on our Gophers.

SIGN OF THINGS TO COME?

I saw something else new today, something I’ve never seen before. Volleyball Matches are always set up with chairs for the entire “bench,” the 10 or so players not currently on the floor. But no one ever uses these chairs because it is a volleyball-tradition that subs remain standing. Maybe there’s some sort of “science” to this, but subs in other sports sit down, so …? Anyway, coaches and trainers sit, injured players sit, and often players leaving the court sit next to a coach temporarily to get instructions on something, before joining the standing subs. But there is always a row of empty seats between seated coaches and standing subs. Until today!

Today, these seats were filled with fans. And not just any fans. At least some of them I recognized as folks who normally sit courtside. I don’t think that courtside seats are as good a vantage point for watching a match as the seats in rows 10 to 15, but I understand that courtside seats are considerably more expensive. And during today’s Exhibition Match, some of these “high-rollers” were seated “on the bench” between coaches and standing subs. And at times, even as the play went on, coaches, including Head Coach Cook were chatting with them!

There was no explanation, but I have a hunch, and it rhymes with pill. I’m guessing it has something to do with N.I.L. money. As Dylan famously said, “The times, they are a changin’.”

I was torn between two headlines for today’s double-header of matches vs South Dakota State and Creighton. 

“EXHIBITION EMBARRASSMENT” works to describe the Gophers losing both matches. I don’t mean to suggest that either of these teams were weaklings. SDSU, who beat us 25-18, 22-25 & 20-25 was last year’s Summit League Champ, and a NCAA Tournament Team. And Creighton, who beat us 18-25, 23-25 & 25-23 was the Big East Champ and an Elite Eight Team. Plus these were 3-sets-regardless exhibitions.

But I’m not accustomed to watching the Gophs demonstrate this level of futility. We dug great, we blocked well, and we served decent. But you can’t win a volleyball match without a little offense. And you can’t generate offense without Outside Hitters. Which is where ANYONE KNOW A LEFTSIDE HITTER? fits.

These matches didn’t count. The next match that will count isn’t until late August, at which time  our Gophers will have, hopefully, have 3 potentially-powerful Leftsides competing for the 2 available positions, and maybe a powerful Opposite and at least one effective Middle besides. We had none of these today. 

* Last year’s best player was First Team All Big Ten Leftside Julie Hanson. Hanson was in attendance today, and warmed up prior to both matches — but never played! No explanation provided.

* The Wooker, when healthy, has previously demonstrated the ability to dominate a D-1 Match. Wooker was in attendance — in street clothes! As she was last week. Wooker had back problems last fall, causing her to miss all of some matches and parts of others. I am hoping that she has had surgery on her back and is recovering. 

* And the highly-rated Kelly Kinney is still in High School; obviously, she wasn’t there.

In their place, we used Acevedo (all 6 sets) and mostly Gilk (4 sets), sometimes Crowl (2 sets) at Leftside, and mostly Crowl, sometimes Schnickels at opposite. These 4 “hitters” played hard and generated a kill now and then, Acevedo probably the most. But I feel certain that if I had access to real stats, the collective hitting percentage of these 4 would be a negative number, i.e., more errors that kills. 

Acevedo, who I think had the majority of kills, also had a ton of errors, mostly wide or long. Crowl, who had a good day blocking, had very few kills and about an equal number of errors. The Freshman Gilk, a left-handed Opposite, and perhaps our starting Opposite by the time we reach the Big Ten Season, looks like a fish-out-of-water at Leftside. And Schnickels, Minnesota’s Ms Volleyball of 2022, has simply not developed into the player I had hoped.

Our Middles blocked well, but provided little offense. Minatee and Myers played the first set of each match and were okay. Myers and Taylor played the second set of each match, and were no better. And Engeman played in both the third sets and was worse. I remain confident that our improved passing and setting will eventually lead to more Middle-Offense, but it wasn’t obvious today. 

To add to our misery, Stella pulled a muscle, or cramped up, or something, but stayed in the game. Coach Cook did not seem tempted to put Georgia Lee in, and after her brutal performance last week, I can’t say I blame him. [Stella & Olivia’s mom was there, as she often is, and the younger sister who will be a senior at Wayzata next fall. And also Samantha! with what appeared to be a 3 year-old son.]

Maybe South Dakota State and Creighton were also deep into their bench? Not being super-familiar with either team, I couldn’t say. The Creighton players weren’t even wearing numbers.

The one highlight of the day was our digging. In addition to our having Junior Libero Palabiyik and our Junior D.S. Thibault both back from last year, we have a third Libero in the Freshman Garr, and Cook isn’t afraid to put all three of them in the back row at the same time. Thibault struggled with her serve-recieve a bit (based on the small sample I’ve seen, I’d put Garr ahead of Thibault ), but all three can really dig. Big Ten Teams will quickly learn not to waste their time dinking on this line-up. I mentioned last week that playing a Libero and two D.S.es puts a strain on the team’s subs-per-set limit; I will be interested to see if Cook is serious about this tactic.

At the end of the day, one key to a successful 2025 season will be getting at least two of Hanson, Wooker and Kelley healthy and playing well. If we can do that, I think everything else could come together.

NEXT UP: St. Thomas at the Pav, next Sat, April 12, 3:00 – FREE!

We got our first look at the 2025 Gophers this afternoon, in an exhibition match vs Northern Iowa. Technically, the Gophs first match was this morning vs the Iowa Hawkeyes, but that match was not open to the public; must be some limit on the number of public, Spring, exhibitions? 

In case you’re wondering, the Gophs won Sets 1, 2 & 4 of this four-sets-regardless exhibition. We lost Set 3, playing our second=string against what I think was N.I.’s starters. I focussed my attention on two things: New Players, and Who will win the “starting” role for contested positions.

NEW PLAYERS:

• Freshman Libero McKenna Garr, from Rush City, MN, was not given the opportunity to play Libero, but she got several shifts as a D.S., and was impressive.
• Freshman Opposite Carly Gilk, from Champlin Park, played in Sets 3 & 4 and looked great, earning 8 kills.
• Junior Transfer Setter (from Rutgers) Georgia Lee played some. Her role will be to step in when Stella is injured. We would not, in any case, want Stella to get injured, and this concern grew after watching Lee. At least today, she did not look as strong as the graduated Elise McGhie.
• Grad Transfer Middle (from Purdue) Lourdes Myers was a pleasant surprise, playing Sets 1 & 2 and looking good enough to compete for a starting role.
• Freshman Middle Jordan Taylor, from Texas, playing Sets 2 & 3, also looked good enough to compete for a starting role. 
• Red-shirt Freshman Leftside Olivia Swenson (Stella’s sister) played sparingly, and has yet to convince me that she is a D-1 athlete. AND
• Red-shirt Freshman Setter Stella Swenson looked great, as expected, and well worth the expense of two “full rides.”
• Much anticipated Freshman Leftside Kelly Kinney, the Gophers’ highest-rated player in this recruiting class is, sadly, still in Florida finishing high school. It wasn’t long ago that high school seniors were expected to spend the Spring of their freshman years attending high school. But it has become common for volleyball recruits (and presumably other “fall athletes,” like football and soccer players) to graduate early and enroll in their future college for the Spring Semester. There may be a perfectly good explanation why Kinney didn’t – but it makes me nervous.

COMPETITION FOR STARTING ROLES:

• There is no competition at Setter. It’s Stella or pray for an electrical outage that cancels the match.

• I expected a 3-way competition at the Opposite position, featuring Crowl and Schnickels, who played behind Grote the past two seasons, and the freshman Gilk. But 2022 Ms. Minnesota Volleyball Schnickels played little and, at least today, did not appear to be a serious contender. Not sure why; she didn’t seem injured.

Crowl and Gilk are both left-handed, a clear advantage for an Opposite. Crowl, a 6-4, 5th year Senior is taller, more experienced, and, at least today, the better blocker; I think she had 5 blocks today, in roughly 2 sets. And she a great save of someone else’s poor first pass. Plus, she’s a decent server.

Gilk, a 6-2 Freshman, had minimal success blocking, and minimal success serving – but she had 8 kills! in less than 2 full sets at Opposite. If today is any indication, it appears that Crowl is superior defensively, but Gilk will produce more offense – maybe a lot more. 

• I also expected a 3-way competition for the two MIddle positions (4-way if you count Engeman, but I don’t) .

> The 6-1 Junior Minatee played Sets 1 and 4, and looked good. Minatee was a starter last year, and as the only “returner” of the 3, would seem to have an edge in this competition. But she’s undersized. 

> The 6-3 Grad Transfer Myers played Sets 1 and 2 and looked like a competent, experienced D-1 Middle.

> The 6-3 FreshmanTaylor played Sets 2 and 3 and looked great.

Even with Engeman playing Sets 3 and 4, the Gopher Middles dominated N.I. I predict that Minatee  and Myers will be the starters in the first match of the fall season, but Taylor could push both and could become a starter by season’s end.

• I also expect a 3-way competition for the Libero and D.S. positions.

> The Junior Palabiyik (I’m considering the nickname “Tilapia” which is easier to say) is the incumbent Libero, played the position most of today, and will likely be the starter to open the fall season.

> The Junior Thibault, the incumbent D.S., played Libero in today’s Set 2, D.S. in other sets, served well throughout, and will likely be the starting D.S. to open the fall season.

> But the Freshman Garr looked very good. I expect Palabiyik to retain her starting Libero role, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Garr pushes ahead of Thibault before season’s end.

Interestingly, there were times today when the Gophers employed a 3-Libero serve-receive, as Nebraska did on their path to last year’s National Runner-Up finish. If we can get away with this (Liberos sub in and out freely, but there is a 12 substitutions per set limit on other players), Stella ought to get better passes than Shaffmaster got back in 2023 – from that horrible receive including Landfair and Wooker.

• As of today, Leftside Hitter is the most up-in-the-air of any position, with 4 potential candidates (5  if you count Olivia, but I don’t) for 2 positions. 2024 leading Hitter and First-Team-All-Big-Ten senior Hanson is the obvious front-runner. Barring injury, I can’t imagine Hanson won’t be one of the two. She was decent today. But after that, the outlook gets murky.

> The senior Wooker has shown the ability to be a dominant Big-Ten Leftside Hitter – when she’s 100% healthy. But she had a serious back-problem most of last season, missing some matches and struggling in some of the matches she played in. And during today’s exhibition, Wooker was on the bench in sweats and limping. The U is tight-lipped about the health of their student-athletes (does any reader know anything?); my guess is that she may have had off-season surgery – and they’re keeping her out of action until August?

> The Sophomore Acevedo played a fair amount last year, in place of Wooker, great now and then, poorly now and then; mostly okay. She was also decent today, playing most of the match, but I suspect she is option # 4.

> Kinney is still in Florida finishing High School.

NEXT UP: Saturday, April 5, in Brookings, S. D., two matches vs:

10 a.m, vs South Dakota State and

1:30 p.m., vs. Creighton (an Elite Eight finish last year)

I’ll be there covering the matches for GopherVBallRocks. (Gonna be a long drive home, not sure when I’ll get the blog-post done.)