Month: September 2025

Sort of. I don’t guess they go by the nickname “Ruts,” and two of the three sets were close. But we did sweep the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers, 25-22, 25-13, 29-27.

Set 1 was hard-fought, tied 7-7, 17-17, 22-22, the Gophers often trailing by a point or two, and our points coming off of Rutgers mistakes more than from our offense. We didn’t take our first lead of the Set (and Match) until running 5 from down 20-22. Set 2 was ugly, on the Rutgers side of the net, as though their hearts were broken by letting Set 2 get away. The highlight on the Gophers side of the net was Georgia Lee’s 4 service aces, three of them consecutive, adding to the heartbreak. 

Set 3 was not as close as the 29-27 score suggests. Up a point or two mid-set, the Gophs went on a 12-5 run behind Lee & Stella’s strong serving. Outside Hitter Olivia Swenson is not part of any competitive rotation the Gophers can field, but she’s part of the team, and like any bench player in any sport, yearns to get into the game. So feeling confident, and maybe thinking about tougher upcoming opponents, Coach Cook decided that with a score of 21-13 in Set 3 would be an opportunity to play Olivia … as part of our Serve Receive instead of Thibault. Understandably, the Rutgers’ servers picked on Olivia. It was ugly, and in the blink of an eye it was tied at 23-23. Give credit to Rutgers for stiffening, and trading sideouts, even after Olivia returned to the bench. (Listen, I’m sure that Olivia is a fine young woman, and I assume that sister Stella wants her to get a chance.) Finally, at 27-27, Hanson rotated to the front row, got two good sets, and pounded ’em both to end the match.

The one spot where we have actual, can-play, depth, is at Outside Hitter, where we have 4 talented players to fill 3 positions. Recently (vs Loyola, maybe?) Hanson sat out an entire match. In the Big Ten Opener, vs Michigan State, Gilk started on the bench, with Kinney at Opposite – and I jumped to the conclusion that Hanson, Acevedo & Kinney were our “regulars.” But after a couple miss-hits in Set 2 vs MSU, Coach Cook benched Kinney for Gilk. Gilk played okay, but not noticeably better than Kinney. So I was surprised to see Gilk start today’s Rutgers’ match. Unlike Olivia, Gilk made the most of her opportunity, racking up 7 kills (one behind Hanson), 3 blocks (tying Myers for the Team-lead, and played an important role in the closing finish of Set 1. Does that mean that Gilk is the “starter” now? I dunno; KInney played Set  3 instead of Acevedo, and looked good. It could be that Coach Cook thinks of them as 4 “starters.”

RE BLOCKING: We finished the match, officially, with 5 “Team-Blocks,” mostly Taylor, Hanson and Gilk. But we also had a ton of “Denial-Blocks,” where we stuff the ball back in the opposing hitter’s face, someone pops it up, and play goes on. And we had at least 8 to 10 times where we stuffed our opponent’s hit and the ball went straight  to the floor too quick for anyone to dig it – but landed out of bounds, usually by less than a foot. So, we were inches from having a dozen blocks – yielding a much more dominant match. In a sense, there is an easy fix, as this is just a matter of the angle at which our blockers are extending their hands – ten degrees would produce a better outcome. But it happens fast; that ten degrees has to be mastered by a thousand repetitions in practice. Hopefully, by the end of the season, we’ll see the majority of those balls hitting the line or just inside.

RE SERVING: I am, at least for now, very happy with our serving. Today, we had 11 aces vs 5 errors, which I’d take any day. I’d even be happy with 4 aces vs 5 errors, if we were consistently pressuring our opponents’ receive – and keeping them “out-of-system.” As we did today. Aces are great, but given that we don’t have anyone capable of a 90 mile-an-hour, top-spin, jump-serve, aces are sort of a random bonus. A consistent barrage of hard, flat, floaters, aimed at the back-line, and targeted at the opponent’s weak link, is good serving. That’s what we did today, and I loved it. 

RE CONFIDENCE: After watching Gopher Teams coached by Hugh McCutcheon (for 11 years?), it is surprising to see the frequent substitutions made by Coach Cook, especially ones like not playing Hanson against Loyola and letting Rutgers back into today’s Set 3. McCutcheon did not coach like that. But these ‘25 Gophers have won 12 straight matches since the season opener vs Texas A & M, 9 of those in 3-set sweeps, including several sets that could have gone either way — but didn’t. Cook seems to have a lot of confidence in these freshmen, and these freshmen show no sign of panic when down a few points mid-set. I worried that we might miss the confidence that Shaffmaster had to take over a tight set or match. But maybe this whole freshmen-heavy team has that we-got-this confidence.

NEXT UP

Michigan at Michigan, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. on BTN. Michigan is 10 & 3 overall, and were ranked in the top-30 at one point, and it will be these freshmen’s first BIG-Ten road game. On the other hand, we swept Michigan State at the PAV, and 3 nights later, Michigan State swept Michigan in East Lansing. 

Northwestern at Northwestern, Sunday, 2:00 p.m. on BTN +

These are matches the Gophers SHOULD win, and it is exactly the sort of matches we NEED to win.

I had failed to notice (until multiple GopherVBallRocks readers mentioned it to me) that the MSU Spartans came into the match with a perfect 10 & 0 record. The catch was that they hadn’t played anyone very good. Anyway, the Gophs made quick work of Sparty, 25-16, 26-24, 25-18. Set 2 was close, at one point we trailed 9-15, but even then I felt, accurately as it turned out, that we would win the set.

Once again, the victory reflected balanced scoring, I had

• Hanson with 11 kills (and 3 aces)
• Acevedo with 10 kills
• Myers with 6 kills (all slides)
• Gilk (who subbed in for Kinney early in Set 2) with 4 kills
• Kinney with 3 kills, and
• Taylor with 3 kills and 3 blocks.

And a Team Hitting percentage of .389

Speaking of Taylor, I’m not sure she would be getting court-time yet if Minatee hadn’t gotten injured, but tonight we saw exactly the Taylor I was hoping to see. By that I mean, she’s a freshman, making freshman mistakes. (E.G., she got whistled for reaching over the net to interfere with a Sparty set, and she threw a free ball back to Sparty versus passing it to Stella.) But she is very active at the net getting lots of no-kill blocks and intimidating the Sparty hitters.

Speaking of freshman struggles, Garr didn’t have a perfect night either, especially on serve-receive. She shanked a couple of receives, and let two go by that hit the line. (Someone in section 110 said that her teammates were screaming “OUT” on both.) 

I liked our serving. We had 4 Aces vs 5 service-errors. Obviously we’d prefer that ratio to tilt the other way, but aside from the aces & errors, I felt we put a lot of pressure on Sparty’s receive all night.

Interesting that Gilk came in for Kinney. I like Kinney and I thought we had settled on Kinney as our Opposite. But after a couple of hitting errors she got the early hook. I like Gilk too, and she wasted no time getting her first kill. I’m glad we have both of them.

NEXT UP: RUTGERS, at the Pav, 2:00 on Sunday.

The Gophs are on an 11-match win streak, and I like our chances of extending it to 12.

If you are learning here that the Gophs swept the Golden Eagles, 28-26, 25-21, 25-21, you might ask, “Well, shouldn’t they? Marquette isn’t Big Ten, and they weren’t TOP 25 ranked.” But Marquette was a pretty tough team, tough enough to have swept #15 ranked Florida two days earlier. And each Set was a grind. 

In Set 1, our Gophs trailed 7-12 and 15-19. We never trailed by more than a point in Set 2, but we never led by more than a couple until late. And in Set 3, we trailed 8-12 and 11-15. Part of the reason we trailed in Sets 1 & 3 was fantastic saves made by the Golden Eagles. Time and time again, the Gophs pounded great hits or killer dinks that looked like certain kills, only to have a gutsy Marquette Squad save balls headed for the bleachers.

And the reason we were able to come back in Sets 1 & 3 was that the Gophers didn’t let it bother them. We lost some of those points I thought we had already won, but we just kept pounding the ball. Two of the 4 close-the-gap runs were with Acevedo serving. Give Acevedo credit for serves that kept Marquette out-of-system, but credit also a front-line of Taylor, Kinney and Hanson.

In past seasons, my reporting good offensive balance was often rare. But I think this ‘25 squad is going to thrive repeatedly on BALANCE. Here are the Official stats from today’s match:

Hanson: 15 kills with a .225 %, and a block;

Acevedo: 11 kills with a .233 %, and a block;

Kinney: 9 kills with a .400% and 4 blocks;

Myers: 8 kills with a .217% and a block; and

Taylor: 6 kills with a .667% and 4 blocks. 

THAT’S BALANCE!

Good day for the locals; Vikes win big, Lynx win big, and Gopher VB wins big. I didn’t realize they were still playing, but apparently even the Twins won.

NEXT UP: 

Big Ten Opener at the Pav vs Michigan State, Thursday, 7:30 (BTN), and

Rutgers at the Pav on Sunday, 2:00 BTN+

Not the Gophers, to sweep Loyola, 25-19, 25-10, 25- 15. Hanson never played a set. But don’t panic; I am fairly certain that Coach Cook “rested” Hanson so as to create the opportunity to play Kinney at Leftside (plus Acevedo) and Gilk at opposite.  

And it worked; these 3 Gopher Outside Hitters dominated the Ramblers. Kinney and Acevedo both reached double-figure kills, and Gilk was close. And roughly half of Kinney’s kills were off-speed shots. I have long lamented that the Gophers have, for years, been weak at off-speed shots (Samedy was okay at it, and the Tapp Sisters knew how to dink an overpass, but generally). Stella is good at it also so we have two players who can score with an off-speeder. I still don’t want Hanson or Acevedo trying it, and I cringe when Crowl does it.

The Gopher Middles, Myers and now Taylor in her debut as a starter, also looked good – I had them near double figure kills combined. One concern is that their kills came mostly on slides, which Myers excels at; Minatee was better at quicks.  I’m high on both Myers and Taylor, but it would be helpful for quicks to be part of a diversified attack.  

Loyola didn’t really test our serve-receive. Look for more competition from Marquette on Sunday.

Prior to the season opener, less than a month and a mere 9 matches ago, I had posted my thoughts regarding our 12th ranked* Gophers depth chart. I was right about the order of who ranked where for some positions and wrong about others, but the big development concerns the DEPTH itself. Prior to the season opener, we appeared to have a lot of it, but no longer. Even before we have concluded our non-conference season, we are extremely dependent on keeping our starters healthy. * I think the #12 reflects our 8-1 record – but ignores our relatively weak non-conference schedule AND our current depth issue.

We never had depth at SETTER. We play a 5-1, and Stella Swenson is the ONE. Georgia Lee has, a pleasant surprise, turned out to be a strong designated server, and she sets well enough for minimal spot duty, i.e., in for a point or two, as a setter. But we are unlikely to fare well in the rugged Big Ten schedule with Lee or third string setter Chloe Ng as our one setter. 

We had good depth at LIBERO, with the excellent Zeynab Palabiyik as our #1, Kate Thibault as our #2, and true freshman McKenna Garr as our #3. So much so that it appeared we were going to routinely play all 3 at the same time in certain rotations. But Palabiyik is out for the season, leaving us with only Thibault and Garr. I predicted that Garr might jump ahead of Thibault, and for now, she has, getting the 11 half-rotation jersey and keeping Thibault in the 6 half-rotation D.S. spot. But Thibault has been playing really well, so this might continue to be a competition between the two of them. The bigger issue is that we need at least two healthy Liberos, so we no longer have any depth at this position. Maybe Gilk?

We had good depth at MIDDLE, with the excellent 5th yr transfer (from Purdue) Lourdes Myers as our #1, the undersized junior Calissa Minatee as our #2, and the long and talented true freshman Jordan Taylor as our #3. But Minatee is out for the season, leaving us with only Myers and Taylor. Taylor instead of Minatee won’t hurt us on defense, as Taylor has the potential to become a dominant blocker. In the short-term, losing Minatee will set us back a bit on offense as Minatee had been quite productive on the quick-sets from Stella, and the Stella-Taylor timing is still off. The adjustment from setting the short & quick Minatee to the tall & slow Taylor falls on Stella’s shoulders; I think Stella is up to it, but it won’t happen overnight. Again, the bigger issue is that we need at least two healthy Middles, so we no longer have any depth at this position. Maybe Kinney?

We had good depth at OUTSIDE HITTER, where we’ll play two LEFTSIDES and one OPPOSITE. We had Julia Hanson, The Wooker, and Alex Acevedo at Leftside, the true freshman Carly Gilk and 5th yr veteran Lauren Crowl at Opposite, and the true freshman and versatile Kelly Kinney who can perform at either position. (I did not, and do not, entertain playing the slow-moving Olivia Swenson in a Big Ten match. I’m sure Olivia is a nice person and a supportive teammate, but if she really wants court-time, she belongs D-3.) 

So we had 6 players for 3 positions, and losing The Wooker drops us to 5 options for 3 positions, with Kinney’s versatility a critical asset. For now, it appears that the starting Leftsides will be Hanson and Acevedo, and Kinney at Opposite, and Gilk and Crowl hopefully performing so well in practice as to push Acevedo for a starting role (moving Kinney to Leftside). Hanson is a stud. Acevedo has looked good lately, and starts quick in Sets 1, which is helpful. But Acevedo was inconsistent at times last year, which we can’t afford. Kinney and Gilk are true freshmen, which often portends inconsistency. Crowl is an adequate, 5-tool backup, but I scream in frustration every time she dinks – which is way too often. So OUTSIDE HITTER is the one position where we still have a little depth, but precious little. 

Injuries play a role in every team sport, but losing 3 of your top 13 players competing for 8 starting roles is enough bad luck – and the Big Ten season hasn’t even started yet. We can’t afford much more and still remain competitive.

NEXT UP: The Gophs finish the non-conference season with

Friday: Loyola at Loyola, 6:00 on ESPN+

Sunday: Marquette at Marquette, 5:00 on FS1

We need to win both!

Three of the 4 sets were close, but our Gophers prevailed 25-23, 26-28, 25-18 & 25-20.

Set 1 involved a series of mini-runs, The Gophs went up 7-3 with Acevedo serving (Hanson, Crowl & Minatee in front row), then the Jackrabbits pulled within 1 at 7-6. The Gophs again pulled ahead 12-8 behind Hanson’s serve and Acevedo’s hitting, but then the Rabbits again pulled back in it at 12-11. We pulled ahead 16-11 and traded side-outs to 24-19, but the Rabbits ran 4 to get within 24-23 before a nice kill from Acevedo (who had a great Set 1) put it away.

Set 2 started poorly at 2-5 and 3-8, during which Minatee was injured. (Her knee?) Taylor came in, looked uncomfortable, then Minatee came back, during which Myers got hot, pulling to Gophs to a 12-10 lead. Taylor came back in, and continued to look uncomfortable as the Rabbits surged ahead 14-17. The teams sort of traded sideouts until the Rabbits reached 23-19, but the Gophs weren’t quitting and fought back to send it in overtime – where they lost a tough challenge allowing the Rabbits to pull ahead 27-26. Then the Rabbits had a nice kill for the win.

Set 3 also started poorly at 2-5, but we pulled back to 7-7, Taylor continuing to look uncomfortable, then surged to a commanding 20-13 lead behind strong hitting by Acevedo and Hanson. 

Set 4 was tight most of the way, with scores of 4-4, 7-7, 10-10 and 19-18 before the Gophs pulled away behind two freshmen: Stella with 3 kills (of her 4 total) and Taylor with 3 blocks (of her 4 total). 

Overall, I had Acevedo as the offensive leader with 16 kills. Clearly, I had underestimated Acevedo in my preseason analysis; she certainly carried her weight today. I had Hanson with 12 kills, 4 blocks and 11 digs, including some tough ones. I had Myers with 8 kills and 6 blocks. And I had Taylor, who struggled early, ending the match with 4 kills and 4 blocks, most of them in Set 4. Also, Thibault dug well.  

Stella was our first server (a typical VBall strategy) in each set, with Crowl starting Sets 1 & 2 in the front row – I think because of her blocking skills? But when Stella rotated to serve her second time, Coach Cook sent Kinney in instead of Crowl, and, noting Crowl’s lack of production, Coach skipped Crowl entirely in Sets 3 & 4. If I was coaching the Gophs, I’d make a rule that Stella can dink, but everybody else, especially Crowl would be forbidden to dink. Nobody but is any good at dinking and we send over way too many free balls.

Today was a good win over a strong team. I posted Friday that a Dayton Coach was dismissive of the Jackrabbits claim to being ranked, but the only weakness I saw was that their setter is too short, 5-7 or 5-8 maybe, to block. It used to be common for Women’s VB teams to have vertically-challenged setters, but these days, a setter on a D-1 team playing the preferred 5-1 system has to be at least 6 ft. Libero is now the only option for a girl of normal height. 

NEXT UP: The Gophs finish the non-conference season with

Friday: Loyola at Loyola, 6:00 on BTN+

Sunday: Marquette at Marquette, 5:00 on FS1

A sweep is a sweep, but I’m calling it “skinny” because the scores were 25-22, 25-21, & 25-22. Set 1 was tied at 22-22 before the Gophs won 3 straight points, Set 2 was 23-21 before the Gophs won consecutive points, and Set 3 was tied at 19-19 before the Gophs won 6 of the last 8 points. Interestingly, the snakebit Flyers lost a surprisingly similar sweep yesterday, to tomorrow’s Gopher opponent, the Jackrabbits. 25-22, 25-23, & 25-17. As it happens, I had a chance to chat with one of the Flyers coaches after the Jackrabbit sweep, — who was not impressed with the Jackrabbits, “ They’re decent. But they’re no Top 25 Team.” I wonder what he thinks of the Gophers. Also wonder how he feels about Diet Coke after 6 tantalizing losses. (Plus Coke Zero tastes so much better.)

By the end of the match, the Gopher hitting was almost as evenly split as possible; Kinney, playing Opposite, had 12 kills, Acevedo had 11, Hanson had 10 plus 4 blocks, and Myers had 7 kills and 3 blocks. But individual sets were anything but balanced. 

Set 1 was the most productive set I can remember Acevedo having in Maroon & Gold; she had 4 early kills to keep the Gophs in the set, before Hanson and Kinney got rolling, plus a 5th kill in the final Set 1 push.

Then in Set 2, Kinney came alive, I think recording 5 of her match 12 in Set 2.

Set 3 was Myers’ turn to shine. I’m starting to feel like Myers running a slide is the most reliable weapon in the Gopher Arsenal.

Hanson didn’t seem to take over a set like these others, but she was a steady force throughout the match.

WHY SO CLOSE, one might ask?

And the answer was obvious. Gopher serving was dreadful, 12 service-errors vs 4 aces. Tonight’s 1:3 ration will kill our Gophs vs a strong team. And the carnage was spread around, Hanson missed 4 serves, vs 1 ace, Stella missed 3 serves, vs 1 ace, The only one of our 6 “regular servers” to finish the match with a positive ratio, was Lee with zero errors and 1 ace. I’m starting to see a significant role for Lee beyond backup setter.

NEXT UP: A very dangerous Jackrabbit squad, at the Pav, tomorrow at 3:00 (also on BTN+). A Dayton coach said “they’re no Top 25 Team,” but I’m not so sure. If they walk out of the Pav tomorrow with the Diet Coke trophy, they”ll be ranked on Monday.

Remember that they took two sets out of three from our Gophs in a Spring Exhibition Match. We were missing Hanson and Kinney that Spring Day, the two of whom contributed a combined 44% of today’s offense. But SDSU had a player in sweats that day, so they weren’t 100% either. Spring matches don’t count, but tomorrow’s match will impact Gopher seeding for the NCAA Tournament in December.

I got home late, and Reader R.A. had already submitted his report, so let’s go with that. I’ll have more to say in a “Dial Classic” roundup after Sunday’s match.

R.A.’s report: When I saw S. Florida small team, I thought 3-0. My seatmate — very knowledgeable told me they took Purdue to 5 sets … but we swept them anyway, 3-0. 25-13, 25-13, 25-19. Set 3 had 5 freshmen (Gilk, Kinney, Taylor, Garr, redshirt Stella.) on the court more than half the time. They played well, which is very encouraging for now and next two seasons. But they are freshmen, which is why SF got 19 pts in Set 3. still 3-0.

Key takeaways:

• Serving has gotten much better. No box score yet, but we got several aces, probably fewer SE for a change, plus our very good drop serves by several players kept them out of system.
• We hit around .350 to their -.100 or so.
• After a slow start, where Hanson hit right into defenders, she adjusted and, I believe, led with 7 or 8 kills.
• Acevedo had a very good match, about 6 kills, good hitting and improved receives, plus 2 aces and difficult serves that led to solid runs. She played like a starter.
• Crowl started with her typical soft dinks over the net, but mid-S2 started hitting HARD for a change. Got 5K and 2-3 good blocks at the net. Team outblocked around 11-3.

Our Gophers did not do anything extraordinary in sweeping the Lipscomb Bison, 25-18, 25-15, 25-19 on their home floor. We served reasonably well (7 aces versus 5 errors), received reasonably well (5 poor receives, mostly Acevedo, out of over 50 receives), fed Hanson (16 kills) & others ( 4 apiece for Myers, Acevedo and Kenney), blocked (9 total, widely distributed), and made a couple of excellent saves including one combo gem by Acevedo and Garr. And that was enough to sweep the Nashville Bible College (Based on their advertisement). Not impressed? Consider that Lipscomb goes into the season a Coaches-Poll favorite to win the D-1 A-Sun conference – consisting of other schools you’ve never heard of.

Highlights are thin, but here’s what I got:

• Back-up Setter Georgia Lee seems to have cemented her claim to the role of Designated Server. I wasn’t impressed when I first saw her serve, but she added 2 Aces tonight to her 3 last night. She also served a nice, multiple-pt run in Set 2. So, go Georgia!  Her likely competition for strongest server over the course of the season would include Acevedo, Garr, and maybe Kinney?
• Besides blocking, our Middles, collectively, had 7 kills on 16 swings. The thing to take note of is the 16 swings. So far this season, our Middles are being fed 7.33 times per set, versus 4.25 times per set for all of last season. This # might dip as we get into the grueling Big Ten schedule, but I like the trend as it takes some of the pressure off of our pins.
• As she did last night, Garr (not Thibault) wore the Libero Jersey. I doubt this was a random choice, so it might be permanent. And
• Kinney started and played Opposite ahead of Gilk and Crowl. But I feel the jury is still out on who our starting pins will be.

Quote of the night from the local ESPN+ broadcasting team: “Can you believe that this is Gopher Coach Keegan Cook’s first time in Nashville? That’s unbelievable!”

UP NEXT WEEKEND:

• South Florida @ the Pav, Friday at 6:00 (BTN+)
• #24 ranked Dayton @ the Pav, Saturday at 5:00 (BTN+)
• South Dakota State (who kicked our butts in last Spring’s exhibition season) @ the Pav, Sunday at 3:00 (BTN+)

I don’t know anything about South Florida, but Dayton & South Dakota State will be challenging.

Bad news first: Our #1 Libero and #1 high-spirit, Zeynep Palabiyik, is out for the season. She injured herself chasing an errant ball and was helped off the court late in the St. Thomas match. The play was right in front of me, and I didn’t think it was going to be that bad, but apparently she blew her ACL. Best wishes to Palabiyik, and we look forward to watching your return next year. (She should be able to call this year a red-shirt.)

The good news is that our Gophs swept the Vanderbilt Commodores on their own court, 25-23, 25-20, 25-21. Sets 1 and 2 were close all the way. The Gophs threatened to blow ‘em out in Set 3, until a late Vandy rally closed the gap. I had Hanson with 13 kills (2 back-row, 1 “six-pack”), and Myers with 6 kills and 5 blocks, including responsibility for 3 pts in a 7-1 run early in Set 3.

If you are struggling to remember how good Vandy was last year, it’s not you, it’s them. The Commodores apparently failed to field a Women’s Volleyball team for the past 44 years. But they were better than that sounds. According to the match announcer, they were picked to finish 12th in the 16-team SEC, and they lost in 5 sets to a Kansas Team that was rated #14 at the time.

LIBERO SHAKE-UP:

When Palabiyik got hurt in the St. Thomas match, it was Thibault who got the promotion to Libero, so I expected she would be the Libero vs Vandy. But that honor went to Garr instead. I haven’t seen enough of Garr to understand why she passed Thibault up, but we know how good Thibault is, and if Garr is even better, that’s great. (This is the end, for this year, of the 3-Libero look.)

OPPOSITE SHAKE-UP:

1. Crowl seemed to be our starting Opposite until she got hurt in the season opener vs Texas A & M, and was replaced by Gilk. Crowl was dressed and presumably available this evening, but Gilk got the call. (No big surprise.)
2. Then, when Gilk struggled a bit (she wasn’t horrible), Coach Cook benched her and put in – not Crowl, but Kinney! I expect Kinney to crack the starting line-up eventually, but I wasn’t expecting it so quickly. Kinney can play Leftside or Opposite, so in one sense she is in competition with Acevedo and Gilk for one of 2 starting roles.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT:

• Our Gophs once again struggled with our serve. I had us with 9 errors and 5 aces. I’d rather we could match our errors with Aces. But 9-5 isn’t horrible – except that 3 of the 5  aces were consecutive (a Turkey, maybe?) by back-up Setter Georgia Lee, in Set 4. For most of the match we had committed 3 times as many errors as aces.
• We have a pretty good serve-receive in general,  but Acevedo continues to  struggle – I had her with 5 of our 7 service-errors. Our opponents know and target her as often as possible. It didn’t hurt us tonight, but it could decide a tight match. Acevedo hit okay; I had her with a team-second-high of 7 kills.
• Stella played well, but not as good, yet, as we need her to.

Tomorrow night (6pm), we take on Lipscomb. Can I get a shout-out from all the Lipscomb alumni reading this?