Author: jktrpp

On November 10, our Gophers lost to a very good Purdue Team in 4 sets. Since then, we won in 5 sets at Indiana and have swept 3 consecutive matches at the Pav. Iowa is not very good, but Ohio State has some good players, and tonight’s opponent, the Fighting Illini, arrived at the Pav with the exact same 11 & 7 conference record as the Gophers. The Gophs played well against the Buckeyes and even better tonight vs the Illinin, Gophers 25-20, 25-21 & 25-17.

SET 1: The Gophers, who started slow in several matches early in the season, came out strong, 5-0 behind McGhie’s serving, Landfair’s dinking, and an Owoleye block. And soon pushed the lead to 13-5. Just as it looked too easy, Illinois’ excellent setter, Brooke Mosher rotated to the serve, and began to terrorize the Gophers. The only top-spin, jump-server on either team, Mosher ran 5 points, including two that clipped the net and dropped in, and one that Palabyik jumped out of the way of, only to see it hit the end-line. And Illinois maintained the momentum that Mosher earned, climbing back to a 17-17 tie. Earlier in the season, this loss of momentum might have hurt the Gophers, but tonight’s squad took the momentum back with 3 consecutive points. When Mosher rotated to the serve for the 2nd time, she crushed her first serve – and Palabyik popped it up into the rafters – and when it came down, Shaffmaster teed it up for a kill. And with Mosher’s serve out of the way, the Gophs coasted to the 25-20 win.

SET 2: Was harder fought, with ties at 3-3, 6-6, 9-9, & 13-13. Murr handled Mosher’s first serve, and when Mosher rotated to the serve for the 2nd time, she tried to put a little extra on it and hit it long. Other, less powerful Illinois servers, had greater success just serving at Landfair. There were some very long volleys in Set 2, with spectacular digging by both teams. But the Gophers were more consistent and slowly edged ahead.

SET 3: With their backs to the wall, The Illini came out strong, strong enough to take a 3-6 lead. But with Murr serving and Wooker and Davis pounding the ball, the Gophs went on a 15-6 run to take an 18-12 lead. And the Illini started thinking about the showers.

Landfair led the Gophs with 15 kills, but more impressive was Davis’s 9 kills, on 15 swings, with only 1 error – an impressive .533 clip for the match. An under-sized 5-11, Davis is helpless against big middles (like Wisconsin’s), but she often plays well against average middles, and tonight was an example of that. Davis had 3 blocks, also.

Wooker had a mere 11 kills, but they included a back-row kill and a sneaky “tool-shot” on a ball set too-tight to the net – neither plays she has made with regularity. For the match, the Gophs outhit the Illini .304 to .107.

The Gophers have won 9 straight sets, 6 against respectable teams. They were all at the Pav, which helps, but there has been something else different about these last 3 matches. Our digging has been much better, AND, for the first sustained period all year – Coach Cook has played Palabyik at D.S. D.S.s are only on the floor half the time (actually less, only 7/12ths, because Grote serves before Polabyik subs-in for her) and they are often inconspicuous. Plus Palabyik’s court-time takes away from Hanson’s back-row offense. But every touch Palabyik gets is a back-row touch that Wooker doesn’t have to take; I think Palabyik’s presence is part of the reason the Gophs are playing better.

WHERE WE STAND

Around the time of the Gopher’s disastrous east coast trip, where we lost to Maryland & Rutgers (with Shaffmaster injured), some GopherVBallRocks readers predicted that the Gophs would finish the Big Ten season at 10 & 10, or worse, and miss the NCAAs. But I predicted, amidst the gloom and doom, that the Gophs would finish 12 & 8 and be invited to the NCAAs.

The current win streak has pushed our record to 12 & 7, and (at least for now) sole possession of 5th place in the conference. Tomorrow night’s opponent, at the Pav, is #1 Ranked Nebraska – who won’t be in a good mood after losing their first match of the season this afternoon at Madison. I think the Gophers are capable of winning this final regular season match – but it’s unlikely. Never the less, I believe that tonight’s victory guarantees an NCAA slot when the pairings are announced Sunday evening.

Minnesota vs Ohio State is a mismatch in football – and just as much in volleyball! Maybe more so. I didn’t see much of today’s football mismatch, but I think the Gophers hung tough in the first quarter. But the Gopher volleyball team was dominant from the opening serve – an ace by McGhie, and never trailed in the match; Gophers 25-14, 25-9, 25-17.

Set 1: Owoleye had 3 blocks early ( I had her with 7 for the match), Wooker had 2 dinks (rare for her, and 3 for the match) early, and Landfair was pounding the ball. Set 2: The Gopher dominance continued to a 14-7 lead. Then Shaffmaster rotated to the serve, behind a front-row of Landfair, Owoleye and Grote, and ran 8 points. The Gophers were flawless. Set 3: The Buckeyes looked eager to go home as the Gophs took leads of 4-0, 14-6 and 21-12. With subs Crowl and Minatee on the court, the Buckeyes showed a bit of life – until match point by Shaffmaster (often responsible for set points).

Iowa, Friday’s opponent, hasn’t won a Big 10 match all year (or last year either?), so not a strong team. Yet the Hawkeyes scored 53 points against the Gophers. But the Buckeyes, who came into tonight’s match at a respectable 7 & 10 (only 3 games behind the Gophers) only managed only 40 points in 3 sets. The Gophers held Emily Londot, one of the Big 10’s best hitter to 9 kills at a .028 clip. Meanwhile, Wooker, grote and Landfair hit .400, .316 & .289, respectfully.

Maybe the Hawkeyes, a young team, were just having a bad night, but it seemed to me that the Gophers were playing their best volleyball of the season, playing like the team we hoped they would be, peaking at the right time? The Gophers served well, 9 aces vs 3 errors (the best ratio I can remember), made numerous spectacular saves (especially by Landfair!), and our serve-receiving was dramatically improved over the recent match in Columbus, 2 official receiving-errors tonight vs 11 in Columbus. One obvious difference? Coach Cook has finally decided to play Palabiyik at D.S. – vs filling that slot with Hanson as a back-row hitter. If you’ve been reading GopherVBallRocks all season, you’ve heard me asking why this obvious tactic was unused until this weekend. I wouldn’t say that Palabiyik was brilliant tonight, but her receiving is a big improvement over Wooker’s. 

I was excited last night by the Gophers getting 4 kills on “slides” vs Iowa. But we never even tried one tonight vs Ohio State.

FINAL PUSH

Last week I shared my belief that winning 2 of their last 4 matches (which we accomplished this weekend) would get the Gophers onto “The Bubble;” and winning 3 of their last 4 matches (requiring a mere split next weekend at the Pav) should definitely earn the Gophs an NCAA invite. Next weekend’s opponents, 11 & 7 Illinois and unbeaten Nebraska, will obviously be a tougher challenge than Iowa and Ohio State. But if the Gophers can play next Friday like they played tonight, I like our chances vs Illinois. And I refuse to rule out a chance of beating the Huskers. 

At least not this time. It took the Gophers 5 sets to beat Iowa in Coralville back in the Big 10 Opener, but they handled the Hawkeyes with less trouble tonight at the Pav.

Set 1: The Hawkeyes stayed with the Gophers to start the match, earning Set 1 ties at 4-4, 8-8, 12-12, and 15-15, but then Landfair got hot, Gophers 25-19. Set 2: The Gophers got out ahead 6-3, but the Hawkeyes toughened up again, earning ties at 11-11 and 17-17. Then a couple of kills from Grote and one from Shaffmaster sparked the Gophers to a 25-14 win. Set 3: Wooker got hot and the Hawkeyes rolled over, Gophers 25-14.

Notes: Wooker started and played the whole match (unlike the Gophers previous match at Indiana). But Palabiyik did continue her role (which began at Indiana) as D.S.; Palabiyik even had a kill! And with Palabiyik at D.S., receiving in 3 rotations instead of Wooker, Iowa mostly served at Landfair; I had her with 5 bad receives. And Crowl subbed in for Grote in Set 3 and had a kill. 

But the big news was the Gophers discovering (or rediscovering) “The Slide.” A slide is when a Middle Hitter, lined up to the Setter’s left, swings around to the right pin to hit a back-set. This play was a staple of the Gopher offense back in the days of the Tapp Sisters and Regan Pittman, but has virtually disappeared since Pittman left. By my count, the ‘23 Gophers had not earned a kill off a slide in their first 16 Big 10 matches! (During which time they had earned around 40 back-row kills.) In recent weeks, they had even given up trying to run slides. But during tonight’s second set, they converted a slide to Grote, lined up at Left-side at the time. And off that success, they ran several more, earning 2 kills by Middle Davis and 1 by Minatee. If the Gophs could incorporate successful slide into their offense on a regular basis, that would help a lot.

TOMORROW NIGHT: The Gophers host a rematch with the Buckeyes who we beat in 4 sets just 2 weeks ago in Columbus. In that match, the Gophers made a ton of receiving errors (mostly by Wooker), but our blocking (especially by Owoleye) and hitting by Landfair and Wooker overpowered the Buckeyes. We need this match.

In recent years, our Gophers have typically been a contender for the Big 10 Title, while the Hoosiers have typically been bottom feeders. Yet we went into today’s match in Bloomington with identical 8 & 7 records, and got out-scored, significantly in total points, 104 to 115, by the traditionally hopeless Hoosiers. Fortunately, a volleyball match is determined by sets won, and the Gophs prevailed 13-25, 32-30, 19-25, 25-23, & 15-12.

Today’s big story involved Julia Handson and The Wooker. Wooker started the match, as she always does, and got the Gophers’ first two kills. Then, still early in Set 1, after two hitting errors (dropping her hitting % to zero, with 2 minus 2 on 6 attempts), Coach Cook subbed Hanson in for Wooker. And Hanson started slow, contributing to a lopsided Set 1 loss.

I felt certain that Wooker would be back; maybe in Set 1, probably to start Set 2, surely after the Set 3 loss left the Gophs in hot water.  But Wooker never took the floor again. She did not seem injured. It might be because she was under the weather. Or maybe it was because Hanson shook off her slow start to rack up a career-high 19 kills. I don’t know.

I’m so accustomed to seeing Wooker lead the team in kills that I spent the first 3 sets feeling that the Gophers were playing “short-handed.” But with 19 from Hanson (at a .267 clip), another 19 from Grote (at a .350 clip), and 15 from Landfair (.227), we got by – even with minimal offense from Davis, Owoleye, and Shaffmaster (2 a piece). Overall, in terms of hitting, blocking, serving & receiving, Hanson performed pretty much at the level we expect from a healthy Wooker.

Shaffmaster, the Gophers most clutch player (who I have come to appreciate more than some GopherVBallRocks readers), once again stepped up at a critical point, scoring one of her 2 aces at set-point in Set 4. Speaking of serving, Indiana’s advantage in this regard, 10 aces and 13 errors, vs 5 aces and 12 errors for the Gophs, was a major reason for the Hoosiers edge in the total score. And it would have been worse without the magnificent Kylie Murr. Murr finished the match with 1 receiving error, but almost single-handedly kept the Gophers in the match by handling most of the Hoosiers very-aggressive serves. Landfair, who the Hoosiers tried to target, had 6 errors.

The weekend-split keeps the Gopher over .500 in the Big Ten at 9 & 7, and in a 5th place tie with Illinois . The good news is that the Gophs’ last 4 matches are all at home, including:

• Iowa on Nov 17 (7:00 on BTN+);
• Ohio State on Nov 18 (7:00 on BTN);
• Illinois on Nov 24 (5:30, one or the other); and
• #1 Rated Nebraska on Nov 25 (8:00 on BTN).

Unbeaten Nebraska will be a handful (and the Pav will be full of RED). But we beat Iowa & Ohio State in their gyms; we ought to be able to replicate these outcomes at the Pav. We haven’t played Illinois, the team we are tied with. I feel confident that a 3 & 1 finish, running our conference record to 12 & 8, and no worse than 5th place, will earn the Gophs an NCAA invite. A 2 & 2 finish, leaving us 11 & 9, and likely lower than 5th place, would put us on “The Bubble.” And a 1 & 3 finish, leaving us 10 & 10, would surely end the Gophers streak of NCAA invites (and Coach Cook’s similar streak). Who will be our Leftside Hitters?

KEEP THE FAITH!

The Boilermakers swept the Gophers in West Lafayette two weeks ago, and tonight, after losing Set 1, rolled off 3 more sets, 25-17, 22-25, 18-25, 17-25. It was a hard-fought match, with many long voleys and relatively few long point-runs. But Purdue won 3 of the 4 sets played tonight, and 6 of 7 this season. Hard to argue with Purdue being the better team.

The key to the Set 1 victory was that the Gophers never trailed – partly because strong serving by the Gophs, especially by Shaffmaster, made it hard for Purdue to run their offense. The Boilermakers took their first lead of the match early in Set 2, and while the Gophers hung tough late into the set, they never quite caught up. Set 3 & Set 4 were both tied at 10-10, but both were dominated by Purdue after that.

NOTES:

In tonight’s match, the 23rd of the season, Coach Cook managed his roster, for the first time all season, in a way that resembles the way most teams use their roster:

• After 3 rotations in the front row, Opposite Lydia Grote served, and was then replaced by –
• Zeynep Palabiyik for 2 ½ rotations. And
• After 3 rotations in the front row, Leftside McKenna Wucherer (“The Wooker”) subbed out briefly while Julia Hanson served, then
• When Hanson lost her serve, Wooker came back in but –
• Did not receive serve while Palabiyik was on the court,
• Wooker did receive serve when Grote was on the court and Palabiyik on the bench.

In other words, the Gophers played a 5-1 with a Libero and a D.S. (Palabiyik), just like 95% of high school and collegiate volleyball teams. Though we lost to Purdue, I assume this will be the system going forward. Why we waited until the 23 match of the season remains a mystery to me.

Another plus was Taylor Landfair, always one of the three Gophers receiving serve, employing a new tactic tonight – which seemed a significant improvement. All season, Landfair had been lining up 22 to 25 ft off the net, and struggling to bump low/short serves. Tonight, she was lining up 18 to 20 ft off the net, and taking the high/long serves overhand.  This wasn’t always pretty, but I had her with only 2 receiving errors for the match, less than half of her typical performance. And Wooker, the other “black hole” of Gopher receiving, was receiving only half as often. (I had Palabiyik with 1 serve-receive error for the match, in roughly a dozen attempts.)

The difference seperating Purdue from the Gophers: Both teams have big-time hitters and big-time blockers, leading both teams to “dink” fairly often. Either the Boilermakers are really good at dinking, or the Gophers, except for Murr, are really bad at covering dinks. I wasn’t keeping track, but it felt like roughly a dozen of Purdue’s 92 points came off dinks. Meanwhile, the Gophers are mostly poor at dinking. Landfair and Shaffmaster are decent at it, but Wooker and Grote and Davis and Owoleye are terrible dinkers, I had Landfair, Shaffmaster and Grote with 1 point each off of dinks – in about 20 tries, compared to roughly a dozen for Purdue, I never felt the Gophers were effective dinkers under Coach McCutcheon either. I don’t know why.

Lastly, I want to recognize the beautiful saxophone-duet National Anthem before the match, a tenor and an alto I think (but what do I know?) It was a real treat.

NEXT UP: Indiana at Indiana, Sunday at Noon, on BTN+. Indiana has an identical 8 & 7 record as the Gophers do. This is a critical match if the Gophers want to make the NCAAs.

STATE TOURNAMENT

I made it to the Xcel on Thursday for the 4A Semis (and Consolation semis), and the 2A Quarters. The main attraction of the 4A Semis being the Swenson Sisters (3 of them) Wayzata team destroying the competition. They swept Edina in Wednesday’s Quarters, they swept Anoka in Thursday’s Semis, and they are very likely to sweep New Prague in Saturday’s Finals. Rogers, who finished the regular season rated #3 in the State, might have given Wayzata a match on Thursday – but they somehow lost to a mediocre Anoka Team in the Quarters. New Prague has a nice club, including one very talented Middle, so they could push Wayzata to a 4th set, but I can’t see them beating Wayzata. 

My thoughts re Stella, a 6-1 Setter and Olivia, a 6-3 Leftside Hitter, both “committed” to playing for the Gophers next year, haven’t changed much based on what I saw Thursday:

• Stella is a two-time Minnesota Player of the Year, and the real deal. I saw Samantha who went on to be a 3-time All American for the Gophers when she was playing for Hopkins High, and Stella looks just like her. My hope is that the 2024 Gopher roster includes Stella Swenson and Melani Shaffmaster. But if Shaffmaster is not on next year’s roster (for whatever reason), I am not worried about the Gophers having a quality Setter.
• I don’t know about Olivia. She also made the Strib’s All-Metro Team, is a powerfully-built young woman, and a powerful hitter. I don’t see her pushing Landfair or The Wooker, out of the lineup, assuming that they are both on next year’s roster. But I could see her becoming a starter for the Gophers down the road. The Strib article described her as an excellent passer – but she is not always part of Wayzata’s serve-receive, which seems to contradict this.

The level of play in the 2A Tournament is similar to the 4A Tournament in terms of both individual and team skills; the main difference is the size and power of the players. 4A teams run around 6 ft at Outside Hitter and around 6-2 at Middle; 2A Tournament-teams can have a big girl here and there, but they can also run as short as 5-6 at Outside Hitter and as short as 5-8 at Middle. Except for Caledonia. I don’t know if Caledonia has the quickness or depth to play with 4A teams, but they have the size and power. I think that Caledonia is also a perennial football power among smaller schools – must be something in the water down there.

Accustomed as I am to watching Big 10 V-Ball, where the officiating is pretty good, High School officiating often bugs me. The officials at the Tourney are supposed to be the best H.S. officials around, and most of them are pretty good – but not all. The older guy reffing Thursday’s Pequot Lakes / Redwood Valley match was calling completely imaginary violations – especially against Pequot Lakes. PL had a Leftside Hitter who consistently set up deep off the net, but she often got sets that were too close and/or too flat, causing her to “push” the ball over the net. They weren’t lifts, they weren’t throws, but this ref repeatedly whistled her for something – including on consecutive points that gave Redwood Valley a 25-23 win in Set 1. This threw PL off their game, leading to a slow start in Set 2, PL did not recover quickly enough and found themselves down 0-2. But PL got it together and came back to dominate Sets 3,4, & 5 and advance. (As they deserved to.) 

The Gophers escaped Evanston with a 4-set win, 25-27, 25-23, 25-21, 25-23, to complete a desperately-needed weekend sweep, but it wasn’t easy. The 26th-ranked Gophers are now 8 & 6, tied for 5th place in the Big 10 and just a game out of 3rd place, whereas the never-been ranked Wildcats are 6 & 8 and tied for 10th place, the difference being the Gophs homes & home victories over the Cats. So the Gophs are clearly better, right? Hardly. In the last 22 days, the Gophs have played 9 sets against the tenacious Wildcats. The Gophs blew the Cats away in the first set at the Pav, and the Cats blew the Gophs away in the Set 2 at the Pav. But the 7 sets since have been  decided by a maximum of 3 points. 

The difference today, was reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Taylor Landfair. There were matches this season where Landfair looked nothing like the Big Ten’s best player, often not even the Gophers best player. But she looked every bit of it today. Grote (13 kills) and Wooker (11 kills) contributed, as did Shaffmaster (3) and Davis (3), but Landfair’s 25 kills (at a .392 clip) dominated the match. When Landfair was in the front row, the Cats knew she was going to get the set – and they couldn’t stop her.

If the match had been best 2 of 3, sets to 15 but only the serving team can earn a point (i.e., pre rally-scoring) the match might still be going. In 1992, I attended the National 18U Boys Championship match (at Disney World) between a Southern CAL club and a Northern CAL club, played under these old rules. The Southern Boys had a 6-10 Middle who, even back row, hit over the top of the triple block; and the Northern boys had an opposite who was only 6-4, but was built like a linebacker (he was actually committed to USC to play linebacker), and who hit the ball off the triple block so hard that it landed in the stands. Both teams had great serve-recievers which allowed them to tee up every serve up for these unstoppable hitters. No one could earn a point. I think the  best 2 of 3, sets to 15 went about 5 hours. 

Today’s Set 4 had some runs, a couple early by the Gophs to achieve a 17-11 lead, and then a couple by the Cats to pull ahead 21-22. But Sets 1, 2, & 3 were like that 18U Boys match I still remember, two consecutive points were rare.

Notes: 

• Northwestern’s Set 1 setpoint came on a receiving error by Wooker.
• Murr’s always spectacular digging was especially spectacular on a couple of points late in Set 2.
• The Gophs had 7 aces and 9 service errors in 4 sets, and the Cats 9 aces and 8 errors, so basically a wash.

(It was hard on my nerves to watch my favorite team, our Gopher Vballers, and my second favorite team, the Vikes, go down to the wire almost simultaneously. Fortunately, for me, the Gophs were streaming on BTN+ which I could pause when things got tense in Atlanta, without missing anything. If the Gophs had been on live BTN, I would have sprained my thumb — and or driven my bride to shoot me.)

THE REST OF THE WAY: This weekend’s sweep pushes The Gophs’ Big 10 record to 8 & 6. If we can split our last 6 matches, 5 of which at the Pav. to reach 11 & 9, I think our strength-of-schedule should get us into the NCAAs. Next up:

9 & 5 and #19 ranked Purdue; 

At (our only remaining road match) 7 & & Indiana;

Iowa; 

6 & 8 Ohio State;

8 & 6 Illinois; and 

Unbeaten and #1 ranked Nebraska.

Iowa is the only push-over in the group, but I remain confident that the Gophs can win 3 of these matches. (Maybe more?)

Meanwhile, the Minnesota State H.S. Volleyball Tournament will be played at The Xcel this coming Wednesday through Saturday, This will include an unbeaten (maybe unbeatable) Wayzata squad featuring the Gopher-bound Swenson Sisters. But even the smaller schools reaching the State Tourney play great volleyball. And you can watch two matches at once – without a remote!

At least tonight; Gophs over Buckeyes in 4 sets, 25-21, 14-25, 25-22, 25-18. Tonight’s win rekindling hopes for an NCAA bid.

SET 1 stayed close most of the way, with ties at 4-4, 8-8, 11-11, 14-14, & 17-17 before the Gophs pulled away. The Gophs first 3 points came from blocks and we added 3 more, 6 total, for the set. 

SET 2 started out in a similar manner, with ties at 8-8, before Ohio State started serving at Wooker, winning 12 of the next 13 points. I had Wooker with 11 serve-receive errors for the match (and that’s being kind). Plus the Buckeye Middles completely dominated the Gopher Middles. And the Gophs had zero blocks in Set 2. Late in the set, the Gophs went to a 6-2 (McGhie & Crowl), but it was too little too late.

SET 3 started out like Set 2, with poor receiving and a 7-11 deficit; I did not, at this point, feel at all confident. But then the Gophers, fueled by dominant hitting by Wooker (16 kills for the match) and Landfair (14 kills for the match), surged to a 19-15 lead (a 12-4 run). It was see-saw the rest of the way. At 24-19, the Gophs had 5 set-points, losing 3 — before closing the set with a Wooker kill. 

SET 4, the Gophers started slow again, trailing 2-7 and 8-12 before Elise McGhie came in to serve (for Grote?), and ran 7 points (behind Wooker) to put the Gophs ahead. The Buckeyes fought back, but never led again.

NEXT UP: Sunday, 1:00, at Northwestern (who beat the Gophers at the Pav, in 5 sets, a month ago). IF the Gophers can sweep the weekend, we can start talking NCAAs.

GopherVBallRocks is back.

When I started GopherVBallRocks 4½ years ago, I learned that I need a “host,” and somehow (don’t remember) I ended up with Bluehost. I’ve been mostly satisfied, until a week ago, when I needed technical support. (I might have used technical support before, without significant difficulty.) 

Anyway, Bluehost goes off-line periodically for system maintenance, and often they do this late on a Friday or Saturday evening – exactly when I am trying to post – which occasionally delays my post until the following morning – a minor problem. But following last Thursday’s “system maintenance,” I was unable to log in, and forced to seek assistance.

What followed was 7 attempts, over 7 days, to get back in. Here are a couple of things I learned: 1) The on-line “chat” (with a robot, maybe) is completely useless and highly frustrating; 2) The phone support involves long wait-times; 2a) Shorter around 7 or 8 am than in the evening: 3) The folks you end up speaking to are English as a 2nd language types, some difficult to understand, but uniformly polite; 4) Polite does not necessarily translate into helpful; 5) Bluehost allows only five log-in attempts during an unknown block of time, so once you tried five times, you’re beyond help; 5a) Unless you stumble on to a guy that knows how to “override” this feature. 6) One tends to grow testy with people who ask you, “Is it back up yet?” 

In the end, I don’t think I did anything different – I just got lucky. Later that day, I got a cold-call offering to help me re-design the visual impact of GopherVBallRocks (I know it needs it) for a mere $165/mth. This would, it was explained, “increase engagement.” I passed.

The dream of competing for the Big Ten Title, much less winning it, died two weeks ago on that disastrous East Coast trip. (See my take, below, on last night’s match between the two teams that are competing for the title.) The dream now is to make the NCAA Tournament – and advance to the Sweet 16. But we have to make the Tournament before we can worry about the Sweet 16. This afternoon’s win over Michigan State, 25-15, 23-25, 25-16, 25-20, ran the Gophs conference record to 6 & 4, and puts us in a tie for 5th at the halfway mark. The second half of the schedule looks tougher than the first half, so it won’t be easy. But if the Gophs could win half of their last 10 matches, to finish 11 & 9, in the nation’s toughest conference, we should get invited.

On the drive to the Pav this afternoon, I wasn’t certain we would even beat Michigan State, who entered the match with an identical conference record, vs comparable opponents.. Nor was I confident, halfway through Set 4, when we led 2 sets to 1, but trailed 13-18. But then Kylie Murr’s serving and absolutely fearless digging turned the set, and the match around, putting the Gophs ahead 22-19, from whence we coasted to match-point. I wrote, pre-season, that we were going to love Murr, and she proved me right today.

• Set 1: The Gophers have made a habit out of starting slow – but not today. We started strong, establishing leads of 7-1, 11-4, & 16-5 before coasting to the win. The Spartans, knowing that serve-receive is the Gophs greatest weakness, came in serving aggressively – and missed a ton of them. The highlight was consecutive back-set assists by Landfair.
• Set 2: Though closer, at 10-6, 17-14, & 20-17, the Gophers appeared to be in control – until the wheels fell off, turning the 20-17 lead into a 22-24 deficit, from which we did not recover. Disasters in this 2-7 run included 2 hopeless dinks by Wooker, two bad sets by Shaffmaster, and two lost challenges by Coach Cook – leaving the Gophs without challenges for the rest of the match!
• The Gophers regained their poise in Set 3, taking leads of 8-4, 14-8, & 19-12 on the way to the convincing 25-16 win. Wooker and Landfair got hot in Set 3 (I had them with 17 & 13 kills respectively, for the match, and Davis was blocking. The Gophs had their first service-error of the match late in Set 3 (by McGhie) but it didn’t hurt us at all. I had the Gophs with 9 aces (4 by Grote) and only 2 errors for the match – by far their best serving of the season.
• Set 4 was a struggle, and I thought we were going to a 5th set. Coach Cook surprised me by starting Lauren Crowl, who I think of as our 3rd-string Opposite (after Grote & Hanson), and not having any challenges appeared to cost the Gophs a couple of points. Until Murr willed the Gophs into the lead. It didn’t hurt that the Spartans used and lost 2 challenges during the Gophers late spurt, both of which looked 50-50 to me. Then Grote subbed in to serve for Crowl, and got her 4th ace.

#1 BADGERS DOMINATE #2 HUSKERS, YET HUSKERS IN 5

The overpowering Badger front line (Franklin, Robinson, Thomas-Allara, Booth and Shmek) completely dominated the net, out-thitting the Huskers .217 to .130, and out-blocking them 18 to 7. (I think the Huskers were playing without their biggest and baddest frontline player, who had rolled her ankle in a recent match.) And yet, the home-court Huskers took the match 25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 26-24 & 15-13 (total score: Visiting Badgers 109 to 103). The Huskers hitting % was so poor because they kept blasting their hits 20 ft out-of-bounds in an effort to get them past the dominating Badger blockers. 

So how did the Huskers win? With a near flawless serve-receive, brilliant digging, a quick-tempo offense and back-row attacks, both of which minimized the Badger blocking. Congratulations to the Huskers; but if these same two teams meet in the NCAAs, my money’s on the Badgers.

The Gophers will attempt to employ these same strategies in Madison next Sunday, especially the back-row attacks. Unfortunately,  flawless serve-receiving by the Gophers is unimaginable, and the quick-tempo offense, which the Gophers try to use, relies on great passing. The Gophers Outside Hitters are actually a little stronger than those of the Huskers, but passing well enough to win in Madison will require a miracle.

RECRUITING

Several Gopher recruits, or recruiting targets, attended the Northwestern Match on Oct 15. (Fortunately, we won that one.)  

Class of ‘24 Formally Committed Recruits (keep in mind that our formally committed Libero in the Class of ‘23 changed her mind when McCutcheon stepped down, and went to Nebraska instead, so “committed” is a flexible concept) include sisters Stella and Olivia Swenson from Minnetonka. They are both sisters (half-sisters?) of 3-time All American Samantha Seliger-Swenson. (and there’s another Swenson in the Class of 26.) I had the opportunity to watch Stella and Olivia in the 2021 and 2022 State HS Tournaments, and hope to see them again next month.

• Stella is a 6-1 Setter. To my eye, she looks a lot like Samantha at the same stage of their careers (I saw SSS in HS also). In other words, she is the real deal. Shaffmaster is currently a senior, and under normal circumstances would be out of eligibility at the end of this season, and presumably, McCutcheon’s plan was for Stella to slide in as Shaffmaster slid out. But thanks to covid, Shaffmaster has another year of eligibility, if she chooses to use it. If Shaffmaster does exercise her bonus year, and Stella follows through with her commitment, the Gophers will have some interesting options next year.
• Olivia is a 6-3, Outside Hitter. And, no surprise here, she also passes well. Olivia’s hitting did not impress me as much, in my limited observations, as Stella’s setting. But that’s apples and oranges. Olivia may have the potential to become a D1 star, but I am not prepared to say that. Clearly, we were able to recruit Stella and Olivia, at least in part, as a “package deal,” and because big-sis Samantha had a great experience playing for McCutcheon. I’m guessing that either one would withdraw their commitment without the other.

Maybe there are other Class of ‘24 recruits lined up, but I cannot find anything about them, which is troubling. Maybe someone on GopherVBallRocks knows something I don’t?  It will be great to have the Swenson Sisters, but we need Liberos and Middles if we want to be competitive next year.

Class of ‘25 INformally Committed Recruits (my understanding is that the first 4 have verbally committed, but cannot sign the paperwork until after the conclusion of their Junior Season – next month?) include:

• Jordan Taylor, a 6-5 Middle from Langham Creek HS in the Houston area. She looks good in the highlight reel available on-line – but she playing opposite shorter girls. The highlight reel shows her hitting mostly right-handed, but once left-handed – that’s impressive.
• McKenna Garr, a Libero, from Rush City, was voted (by somebody) the Top H.S. Libero in Minnesota in 2022, when she was a sophomore, and is currently rated the Class of ‘25’s #3 overall recruit in MN. The highlight reel shows her doing what Liberos are supposed to do.
• Carly Gilk, a 6-2, left-handed, Opposite from Champlin Park, is rated the Class of ‘25’s #2 overall recruit in MN. The highlight reel shows her being very effective from the back row. And
• Kelly Kenney, a 6-2 right-handed, Opposite from King’s Academy HS in West Palm Beach, FL. 

Class of ‘25 non-committed Recruit Abigail Mullen, a 6-3 Opposite, from the Kansas City area, was also at the Pav for the Northwestern Match. Mullen, like Landfair and Wooker before her, is the #1 rated recruit in the country, and is being recruited by many top teams, including UCLA, Stanford, and Nebraska, among others. The Gophers’ connection, and likely the reason she accepted the invite, is that Coach Cook coached Mullen on last year’s U-17 National Team. It seems odd, to me, to recruit three Opposites in the same recruiting class, but I’m guessing we’d take Mullen in a heart-beat if we can sign her..

Our Gophers swept the Scarlet Knights, 25-23, 25-17, 25-9. As the scores suggest, Rutgers was competitive in Set 1, less so in Set 2, and seemingly eager to get to their hotel in Set 3. The Gopher hitters (Landfair, Wooker, Hanson, and Davis) pounded the ball all night, but –

In Set 1, Rutgers blocked well and dug really well, getting a lot of balls, that looked like they were down, back over the net. With the Gophs leading 12-7, Rutgers went on a run behind strong serving from fifth-year senior Setter Alyssa Nayar, and strong hitting by red-shirt sophomore Outside Hitter Alissa Kinkela (who led the match in kills), to pull ahead 17-19. But after a sideout, on a Shaffmaster kill, Landfair served well-enough to take Rutgers out-of-system, and the Gophs took back the lead, 22-19. Then, at 24-23, Shaffmaster got her 2nd kill of the set (she finished with 5 kills for the match) to finish it off. 

With Nayar serving to start Set 2, Rutgers jumped out to a 1-5 lead. But it was all Gophers after that. Coach Cook subbed Hanson in for Grote late in Set 1. This surprised me, as Set 1 was still much in doubt, but Hanson played well the rest of the match; I especially liked her serving (Grote serves well also). By Set 3, the Gophers on the court included Minatee, for Owoleye, and McGhie and Crowl in a 6-2. As far as I could tell, Grote was healthy and available when Cook went to Hanson. Not sure, but my best guess is that Hanson has worked hard all season and Coach decided she deserved to play – against a team the Gophers should have swept.

But we lost to Rutgers two weeks ago in Piscataway; the Gophers are the “1” in Rutgers 1 & 7 record (now 1 & 8). How did we lose that match? Anything I say will sound like an excuse, but here goes:

• I have to assume that Rutgers, like most teams, plays better at home;
• The Gopher loss to Rutgers came on the 2nd night of a back-to-back, including a 3 hour bus ride following a 5-set loss to Maryland (another team we should have beaten);
• Shaffmaster did not play at all against Maryland (some sort of illness), and did not play in Set 1 against Rutgers that night. We played a 6-2 in Set 2, with Shaffmaster sharing the setting duties with McGhie. We lost both sets. Shaffmaster played fulltime in Set 3, which the Gophs won decisively (behind Grote’s hitting) 25-16. Shaffmaster played fulltime in Set 4 also, but the roof fell in. Perhaps the Gophs, not accustomed to playing back-to-back, and/or Shaffmaster, not 100% healthy, ran out of gas. 
• There are multiple GopherVBallRocks readers who remain skeptical of Shaffmaster, even in her 4th season as our setter, but as I said before the season began, Shaffmaster (2nd to Murr, of course) is the least “replaceable” member of this team. And, in my opinion, Shaffmaster is a “clutch” player, who plays her best when the set is on the line, her 2 kills late in Set 1 tonight an example.

SUNDAY: 2:00, MICHIGAN STATE AT THE PAV.

Michigan State is 5 & 4 in the Big Ten, as are the Gophs. The Spartans record resembles that of the Gophs in that they swept Michigan home & home, and lost to Northwestern at home, and Nebraska at Lincoln. But another of their losses was to unbeaten Nebraska,, and they won at Rutgers, where the Gophers lost. The Gophers are not the obviously better team.

Gophers over Wildcats in five sets,, 25-14, 15-25, 25-27, 25-22, 15-12, composite score, our #24 ranked Gophers 105, unranked Northwestern 100.

In Maureen’s absence. daughter (and former H.S. VBall star) Phoebe was with me today, her first time at the Pav this season. Phoebe does not follow GopherVBallRocks (go figure?), so on the way there she quizzed me about the squad. I told her, as I written here, that the Gophs have 5 very good players, but a terrible serve-receive. I also told her they start slow in Set 1.

Set 1: The Wildcats apparently do not read GopherVBallRock either, so they served lollipops; no aces, no receiving errors by the Gophs (causing Phoebe to disbelieve me), leading to total domination at the net by Landfair, Wooker & Grote.

Set 2 began in a similar manner, leading to a “comfortable 14-10 lead for the Gophs. Then, after gaining a side-out, the ‘Cat’s outstanding, 6-5, (same height as Landfair but significantly broader of shoulder), grad-transfer (from Santa Clara) leftside hitter Julia Sangiacomo, rotated to serve, and picked mercilessly on Landfair and Wooker, to run out the set!

Many of us in Section 110 were less shocked by the Gophers’ serve-receive failures than by Coach Cook’s failure to respond. (Grote was on the bench in this rotation, so after several Northwestern points, Cook subbed Grote back in for Hanson; but Hanson hides behind our Murr/Landfair/Wooker receiving corps, and Hnason did also – a completely irrelevant substitution.) More about this below.

Set 3 began with promise; the Gophs jumped out to a 9-1 lead, with Davis and Owoleye contributing. Even better, when the Wildcats got a couple sideouts and Sangiacomo rotated to serve, she missed it; Gophs up 13-5; and an easy victory to eliminate the bad taste of Set 1. Until the rest of the Wildcats started serving aggressively at Landfair & Wooker. The ‘Cats won 16 of the next 21 points for a 18-21 lead. The Gophs recovered enough to reach OT, but lost 25-27. The mood in Section 110 was grim.

At least initially, Set 4 provided little hope as the Gophs fell behind 4-7, 6-10, and 10-13. Then, with Shaffmaster serving and Grote back in the front row, the Gophers came alive, turning the 10-13 deficit into a 15-13 lead. The back half of  Set 4 included some thrillingly-long points, and surprisingly effective net-play by Davis & Owoleye, but the two teams basically traded sideouts until the Gophs won 25-22.

The Gophers started strong in Set 5 (as they had in Sets 1 & 3), taking leads of 6-2 & 8-4. But Northwestern, unwilling to quit, roared back to reach a 10-10 tie. We were up 12-11, with Landfair serving, but Sangiacomo, who by then had 24 kills for the match, was just one sideout from rotating to serve. We got 1, to lead 13-11, but then Northwestern got the sideout (13-12) and handed the ball to Sangiacomo. Who served out, 14-12 Gophs. Then Shaffmaster got a block (Shaffmaster had a critical block late in Set 4 also), for match point.

The offense was balanced. Landfair had 15 kills, Grote 14 (along with 5 aces, a couple at critical times), Wooker 10, Davis 5 (in only 8 attempts), Owoleye 4, Shaffmaster & Hanson 2 each. Hanson’s kills both came in Set 1, the Gophers’ best set; but I don’t believe she saw the court in Sets 4 & 5.

Which brings me back to coaching. Maybe Grote digs better than Hanson, and she did get 4 back-row kills in 3 sets, versus Hanson’s 2 in 2 sets. But since neither Grote or Hanson is allowed to touch a serve, this seems irrelevant to the Gophers real problem. 

The other surprising coaching move was to have Palabiyik sub-in for Wooker, and then back out again for Wooker to receive. I find this weird in two ways: 1) For the season, Wooker, the team’s only real-aggressive server, has 9 kills and 50 errors; Palabiyik has 6 kills and 6 errors. Obviously, Palabiyik’s kill-to-error ratio is better than Wooker’s; but Wooker’s aggressive serving does take opponents out of system (when she get it in), and at least a couple of Palabiyik’s errors have come at the worst possible times. And, 2) Wooker’s more important weakness is her serve-receive. We haven’t seen enough of Palabiyik’s receiving to know whether she is better than Wooker or not, but Palabiyik is here to play Libero (next year maybe), so she should be.

More mysterious yet is why Cook allowed Sangiacomo to serve 13 consecutive points in Set 2 without making adjustments. When I played bar-league vball, and when Phoebe played H.S. vball, both teams followed the same rule: two failed receives in a row and we changed the personnel. Sub someone in if necessary, or let Hanson or Grote or maybe Davis receive? Do something!

GopherVBallRocks reader D.S. has a theory: Landfair & Wooker, both outstanding hitters (when they get a good set) each have 2 more years of potential eligibility to play for the Gophers. But, in the Portal Era, these talented players could play anywhere they want. and like most great players, they want to stay on the court for all 6 rotations. And if Cook doesn’t let them receive, maybe they’re wearing a different uniform next year? I don’t know; but it’s as good a theory as any.

I am not at all certain that the Gophers deserve a top-25 ranking, but they went into the weekend at #24, and since they went 2 & 0 for the weekend, I predict they will hold on another week.

NEXT UP:

• Rutgers, who we just lost to in 4 sets in Piscataway, on Friday, 7:00, at the Pav, BTN+; and
• Michigan State, a squad with a 4 & 4 Big Ten record (identical to the Gophs’) on Sunday, 2:00, at the Pav, BTN+.

We need to win both!