I think the ‘26 Gophers will be better than the ‘25 Gophers. Other teams will be better also, but the Gophers will have even greater success. Whereas the ‘25 Gophs finished tied for sixth in the rugged BigTen, the ‘26 Gophs will finish Top-Three. And where the ‘25 Gophs earned a top-sixteen seed going into the NCAAs, the ‘26 Gophs will earn a top-eight with a solid chance to make the Final Four.
I’m going to assume that all 5 of our dynamic freshmen will be back to play their sophomore seasons – and why wouldn’t they be? It certainly appeared, from Section 110, that all 5 had a good experience, starting, getting better individually as the ‘25 season went on, jelling with each other and getting better as a team. Hard for me to imagine why any of them would be dissatisfied. And they’ll be better next year. Why? Because sophomores inevitably improve from their freshmen seasons. They’ll carry forward confidence in themselves, and confidence in each other. This core group is going to be terrific! Thibault should be back for her junior year and should be better also.
I am also going to assume that all 4 of the players who were injured this past season will be back and 100% healthy. Acevedo, Minatee and Palabiyik all suffered knee injuries early in the year. I don’t mean to make light of knee injuries, especially ACLs, but these are young women, who I assume have had and continue to receive first-class medical treatment. I expect all three to be 100% by August. Who knows what goes through a young woman’s mind as she sits on the bench nursing an injury and watching her “back-up” enjoy success? But Acevedo and Minatee will have their eyes on the vacancies in the starting lineups created by Hanson’s and Myer’s graduations, and I would expect Palabiyik to be confident about winning back her role as starting Libero. There is no obvious reason that all three wouldn’t be back.
Wooker injured her lower back in early September of 2024. She played off and on throughout the ‘24 season, but was never 100%. It does not appear that there was a surgical intervention during 2025, nor has there been any indication of one during the current off-season. Backs are trickier than knees; maybe Wooker will be 100% by this coming August, or maybe she’ll never play again. If she is 100%, she will be a star, likely the best player on the ‘26 team. If she can’t play, replacing Julia Hanson will be a major challenge for the ‘26 Gophers.
And the Gophers have a top-15 ranked class of freshmen coming in. This group includes:
- 6-3 Middle Elena Hoecke (Lino Lakes/Centennial H.S.) Hoecke is the No. 1 ranked Class of ’26 recruit in Minnesota, the 2025 Baden Ms. Minnesota Volleyball, the 2025 StarTribune Player of the Year, and a 2025 Under Armour All-American. I haven’t seen her play, but I’m guessing she’s pretty good.
- 6-3 Outside Hitter Makenna Crosson (San Jose, Cal) Crosson is ranked nationally as the #25 or #35 (different rating services) Class of ’26 recruit, a MaxPreps All-American as a sophomore in 2023 and on the MaxPreps Player of the Year Watch List in 2025 (she missed most of her junior season due to injury), the WCAL Player of the Year, and is considered excellent in serve-receive. (This will give us 3 Makennas on a 15(?) player roster.)
- Libero Madi Kraft (Eagan, MN) Kraft was a two-time Minnesota Class AAAA All-State team selection, a 2025 Baden Ms. Minnesota Volleyball Finalist, the #8 ranked Class of ’26 recruit in Minnesota (the second ranked libero), and last year helped her Northern Lights 17U team win a Junior National Tournament in Dallas.
All 3 are expected to be enrolled at the U of M in January and available for the Spring Season.
To sum up, this means 6 returning starters, 4 previous starters returning from injuries, and 3 incoming freshmen, 13 total potentially high-level players competing for 8 starting roles.
And then there’s the Out-Portal. As I have written above, I can’t imagine why any of the 6 individual returning starters would want to enter the portal, nor can I imagine why any of the 4 players due to return from injury would enter the portal, nor, to my knowledge, have any entered the portal so far. Nor do I expect any of the 3 recruits who recently signed the paperwork to play for the Gophers, and are expected to start classes at the U any day now, to change their minds.
Sure, there’s money on the table now, but despite what you hear, the teams we are competing with all have roughly the same amount of money, and divide it up roughly the same way, i.e., the Lion’s Share for football and the Lion’s Share after football for men’s basketball, leaving other sports including women’s basketball, hockey, volleyball, baseball, etc. with a few hundred K for their entire roster. Hard to imagine that an otherwise satisfied volleyballer getting $15K from the Gophers would jump to a different school for $20K.
That said, I can’t know what goes on in the mind of an 18, 19, 20 year old young woman, so I can’t say for certain that we won’t lose anyone. But I wouldn’t bet on any one of them leaving. My guess is that all 13 described above will be wearing Maroon and Gold this coming August.
Perhaps more interestingly, there’s the In-Portal. (And maybe a late, fourth, incoming freshman recruit? Perhaps someone from another country?)
The first question regarding the In-Portal is why would a team with 13 talented players, and room for only 8 or 9 to play, even be looking at the In-Portal? The answer is to look at this past and previous year’s Final Four Teams – most of which were strong to start with, and then brought in All-American caliber players to become even stronger – in some cases pushing talented existing players to the bench. In a sense, this seems not a good idea in terms of team-chemistry – but try telling that to Nebraska, Wisconsin or Kentucky, who make Final Fours playing In-Portal transfers.
The second question is why an All-American caliber player would transfer to the Gophers when Nebraska, Texas A & M or Kentucky is on the other line? Given again that I can’t know what goes on in the mind of a young woman, I can’t say for certain, but probably not until we’ve advanced beyond the Sweet Sixteen. Unless there would be some sort of personal connection which isn’t impossible.
A more likely possibility would be a strong player – but not an All-American that would interest Nebraska. Perhaps one who has starred for an unrated team (I’m thinking of a Lydia Grote who had starred at Cal-Berkley) and dreams of playing at a higher level before she runs out of eligibility. Someone not intimidated by an already crowded roster. Reader R.A. called my attention to Kaia Castle, a 6-4 Middle from Montrose MN, who entered the Portal after a respectable red-shirt freshman season at Ohio State. Castle has already signed with Texas A & M, but someone like Castle would seem gettable, and wouldn’t hurt.
And then there’s need. Our pressing need is for a back-up setter. Georgia Lee was our back-up setter in ‘25, has another year of eligibility and could well be back. Lee also served this past season as a designated server, and was adequate in that role. But on those brief occasions in which she needed to run our offense – she was not, in my opinion, an adequate back-up. (I have no doubt Lee is a fine young woman, but that’s a different conversation.) We need someone who could step in and run our offense if, heaven forbid, Stella is unavailable, even temporarily.
Back-up Setters are like back-up quarterbacks and back-up goalies, forgettable when you don’t need them – then suddenly the most important player on the team when you do. And it is difficult to recruit strong back-up Setters because strong Setters don’t want to be back-ups. But we need to find one. Planning for a season-accomplishment better than ‘25 without a capable back-up Setter would be like the Vikings planning to reach the Super Bowl without a back-up quarterback.
2026 PREVIEW – Part 2
I haven’t heard anything about additions or subtractions from the 2026 roster from what I understood it to be a couple of weeks ago. If any readers have heard anything, please let me know. For now, here is how I think the line-up will shake out:
SETTER: The ‘26 Gophers will almost certainly play a “5-1,” meaning one Setter. And we have a very good one in Stella Swenson. I think Stella, who will be better in ‘26 than she was in ‘25, is good enough to lead us to a Top-Three in the BigTen, and top-eight seed.
> But Stella is human, and therefore vulnerable to injury or illness, so we need a back-up Setter. We do not, in my opinion, currently have a back-up Setter capable of covering tips or running our offense. I suppose it is possible that Georgia Lee will be dramatically better this coming season than she was last season – but her biggest deficit is that she is slow. I find it hard to imagine that her quickness will improve dramatically over the off-season.
> With expectations otherwise high, it strikes me as foolish to go into the coming season without a capable back-up Setter, and I hope this problem can be resolved by August.
LIBERO: In recent years, the Gophers have played a Libero-plus-one-Defensive Specialist system, but the trend among top teams is toward a Libero-plus-two- Defensive Specialists system, and I think that was the plan in ‘25 until Palabiyik was injured, eliminating that option. I think we will play a Libero-plus-two-Defensive Specialists system in ‘26, meaning that we will play 3 Liberos.
> With Palabiyik healthy, and I expect that she will be by August, and the addition of incoming freshman Madi Kraft, we should have 4 Liberos available.
> I expect that a healthy Palabiyik will reclaim the off-colored jersey, and that Garr and Thibault will both play regularly as Defensive Specialists. If everyone stays healthy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the freshman Kraft red-shirt.
OPPOSITE: Given only one Setter, we’ll play only one Opposite, and I think Gilk will be our every-set Opposite. Even playing two D.S.s, we will still need one Outside Hitter to play 6 rotations and participate in our serve-receive – and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gilk get this job also.
> Reader R.A., focusing on her late-season struggles, has a much lower assessment of Gilk than I do, but I like her up-side.
> Kinney would be the obvious back-up at Opposite if something happens to Gilk, even if Kinney has secured a starting role at Leftside.
> And maybe the freshman McKenna Crosson would be a darkhorse candidate who emerges to win the 6-rotation role.
MIDDLES: We will play 2 Middles; we have 3. I expect that the starters, for the first match of the season next August, will be Taylor and Minatee, with incoming freshman Elena Hoecke waiting for her opportunity.
> Taylor is the tallest player on the team, one of the most athletic, and has the potential to dominate a match defensively. Her up-side is enormous. Offensively, Taylor wasn’t there yet this past season, especially on the slides. Her coordination with Stella needs to improve dramatically – and I think it will.
> Minatee produced surprising offensive effectiveness during her freshman season in 2024, and again early in 2025 – before her injury. She should recover from her torn meniscus and be effective offensively again in 2026. But she is undersized at Middle, which limits her defensive effectiveness.
> I haven’t yet seen Hoecke play. (Looking forward to the Spring exhibition season.) But she was the best high school player in MN this past fall, and I expect that Hoecke will push Taylor and Minatee for playing time. If Hoecke does crack the line-up, in place of Taylor or Minatee, the choice could be based on whether Coach Cook values Taylor’s defense or Minatee’s offense.
LEFTSIDES: We will play 2 Leftsides. Assuming that Wooker and Acevedo are healthy, we’ll have 4, including Kinney and incoming freshman Elena Hoecke competing for playing time.
> Wooker is the biggest question mark on this roster. She played so well during the 2023 season, that Wooker was named First Team Pre-season All Big Ten last August, despite struggling with her back during the 2024 season. If she is completely healthy and can regain her 2023 skills, Wooker could easily be the Gophers best player – and elevate this team to a legitimate Final Four Contender. I’m pulling for her. But backs are tricky and it is also possible that Wooker will never play again.
> Kinney was a highly regarded recruit. She started slow, especially when given limited opportunity. But thrust into the starting line-up when Wooker and Acevedo were injured, Kinney got better and better, matching Hanson kill for kill in several matches. Kinney isn’t physically over-powering, at least not yet, an off-season in the weight room might make a difference. But she has a full range of attack angles and attack velocities – the best variety of weapons the Gophers have seen in recent years.
> This past season, before she blew her ACL, Acevedo was our #2 Leftside, behind Hanson. Acevedo serves well and, before her injury, she was playing significantly better than she had been during her freshman season in ‘24. Her knee could be 100% by August, and I assume that Acevedo expects to regain her starting role. I don’t want her anywhere near our serve-receive, but if we play a Libero-plus-two- Defensive Specialists, she wouldn’t need to.
> Crosson is another player I haven’t seen and am looking forward to seeing during the Spring exhibition season. She missed her ‘24 season due to an injury, but played well this past season and comes in highly regarded. Wooker, Kinney and Acevedo (and Gilk) are all 6-1, but Crosson is taller at 6-3, and is considered an excellent passer.
> I’d love to see Wooker back in the line-up. If she is not healthy, the season- opening starters are likely to be Kinney and Acevedo. Maybe Crosson will push her way into the line-up by mid-season – hopefully based on her talent, not in response to injuries.
Anyway, I am very excited about the potential of this squad – I don’t think a Final Four appearance is out of the question.