Author: jktrpp

Just as we beat South Dakota U in 4 sets yesterday, our Gophers beat South Dakota State in 4 sets this afternoon, 25-22, 25-14, 20-25 and 25-14. There were 4 matches at the Sanford Pentagon this weekend, each matching a Big Ten Team, our #14 ranked Gophers and the unbeaten but unranked Washington Huskies, vs Summit League Teams from South Dakota.

​The Big Ten Teams won all 4 matches. But the Huskies won all 6 sets they played, and our Gophs lost 2 of the 8 sets we played. The difference was/is inconsequential in some sense, but disconcerting. Washington is unranked because they haven’t played anyone good during their non-conference season, but I was very impressed by their digging – it’s tough to get a ball down against the Huskies.

Wooker carried the Gophers all weekend, as she has throughout the non-conference season: 25 kills last night, and another 25 kills today – 50 kills in 2 days.  It’s possible someone else might have stepped up and the Gophs would have won both matches without Wooker’s amazing performance – but probably not.

Set 1: With Blazkova starting at a Middle and Kinney at a Leftside, the Gophs led most of the set, including at 17-12 and 24-19. But SDSU pulled within 24-22 – and almost closer when a Wooker blast sailed long. Wooker insisted a SDSU blocker had touched it and Coach Cook challenged. Wooker and Cook were right, and the call was overturned for set-point.

Set 2: With Blazkova again at Middle and now Crossen at Leftside, the Gophers crushed, with Wooker, Hoecke, and Crossen blasting kill after kill, and strong blocking by Blazkova.

Set 3: With Taylor at Middle and Crossen still at Leftside, the Jackrabbits led wire-to-wire. That makes it sound like Taylor and Crossen were the problem – but Taylor played her best set of the weekend, and Crossen looked good. We, including Wooker, made a lot of service-errors.

Set 4: Back to a line-up with Blazkova and Kinney, it was tied 8-8 when Wooker, Kinney, and Gilk blasted the Gophs to leads of 13-8 and 23-17. And once again, set-point came off a Wooker kill. 

SERVING: Garr had 4 Aces vs only 1 service-error, but Wooker had the reverse, 1 Ace vs 4 errors. And the rest of the team had zero aces vs 10 errors. Our serving cost us today’s Set 3, and we’re not going to win many Big Ten matches serving like that!

NEXT UP:

Big Ten opener at Illinois, Thursday, 7:00, on Big Ten +. 

It sounds crazy to say that our first conference match is a “must-win,” but Illinois looks like a bottom-half of the conference team, and we have to sweep the bottom half.

And look for my Non-Conference Wrap-Up / Big Ten Preview early next week.

SAY NO TO GO TICKETS

I did not expect this weekend’s matches in Sioux Falls to sell out – and I was correct, at no time was the Pentagon more than half full. I could easily have purchased tickets at the door. But if I was wrong, AA and I would have driven a long way for nothing. So I chose to purchase tickets a week in advance. The Gophers weren’t any help, advising me to contact the venue where the matches would be played – The Denny Sanford Pentagon.

I went to the Pentagon’s website and foolishly clicked on the “buy tickets” item at the top of the page – which took me to GO TICKETS. GO TICKETS said there were only a few tickets left, and most of the seats were surprisingly expensive – as it turned out, 5 TIMES the at-the-door price. So I bought cheap seats, merely 2 ½ times the at-the-door price – figuring maybe we could sneak into the decent seats.  

I paid for them on-line and immediately received a confirmation telling me the tickets had been transferred to my phone. But they didn’t arrive. I waited a couple of days, but they still didn’t arrive, so I tried to contact GO TICKETS. Good luck with that – no phone # and an on-line chat that just goes in circles.

Two days before the first match, I tried again to reach the Pentagon. Also not easy, but a day before the match I finally got through to a live person at the Box Office. Box Office Guy explained that GO TICKETS was a scam and expressed surprise that I had been so foolish. 

Box Office Guy explained that, once on the “buy tickets” page, I should have scrolled down to the bottom where the Pentagon’s direct line was. He went on to explain that most people purchasing tickets through GO TICKETS, for sporting events, concerts, etc., never get them. And people who do get tickets don’t get the tickets they thought they were getting. Not to mention the ridiculous price mark-ups. Plus there were plenty of good  seats left – at a reasonable price.

I am working with my credit card company to get my money back from GO TICKETS. Lesson learned.

Frequent contributor R.A. writes: “For the second time during our non-conference season, we gave a less-skilled team too much rope – this time inexplicably losing set to SDU.  We gave away too many points on service-errors and weak, easy to return, kill attempts.  I’ve begun to think that Stella is playing below her prior standard, with fewer precise, impressive sets than in the past.  I’ve excused it based on learning how to work with new players, but I’m starting to wonder.  

Taylor isn’t playing up to her size, either.  Were it not for Wooker’s massively impressive play, including better serving and back row defense than ever before, we would be in very deep doo-doo.  Her 25 kills were a career high, and as John said, it took some great saves by SD to deny her more.  I’m very pleased by Hoecke and Blazkova, but worried how we’ll do in Big 10 if lower tier teams give us this much trouble.”

And Reader G.K. writes: “John, please give us the TV station that each match is played on.”

JOHN: I’ve been trying, GK. I’m in Sioux Falls watching in person, but last night’s and this afternoon’s match were/will be broadcast on “MIDCO Sports Plus.” It looks like Reader A.A. was able to access it, but I don’t know how.

25-15, 24-26, 25-17 & 25-14. We shouldn’t complain too loud about a 4-set win, but it felt like the Gophers, who won the total match score 99 to 72, were significantly better than SDU, and shouldn’t have let Set 2 get away. We led wire-to-wire in Sets 1, 3 & 4 , but in Set 2, we let the Coyotes get ahead early, 2-6, 5-9 & 7-12. Mid Set 2, we rode Wooker and Hoecke to leads of 17-14 & 21-18, and I felt we were going to win the set. But we didn’t.

In the earlier match (which I did not see), the Washington Huskies convincingly swept the SDSU Jackrabbits. I’m hoping we can do that when we play the Jackrabbits tomorrow.

Individually, another big match for the Wooker. I had her with 25 kills, including 3 from the back-row, plus 3 service-aces (vs 1 service-error) and several nice digs. And I thought Wooker could have had 27 or 28 kills if she hadn’t been robbed repeatedly by the Coyote’s excellent Libero. A very strong match by Wooker. 

Kinney, 12 kills, Hoecke, 10 kills, and Gilk, 8 kills plus 3 service-aces, also played well. I felt our serving was sub-par, 7 aces vs 12 errors – but our serve-receive was pretty good.

Taylor continues to struggle offensively, with 2 kills and 3 errors on 11 swings – a minus .091 percentage. I had Taylor with 3 blocks (officially 4), but given that Taylor had a significant height advantage over both Coyote Middles, I expected more from her on offense. Taylor and Hoecke both dinked more than I like to see, especially since neither is good at it. (Wooker and Kinney are effective on off-speed hits.) The frequent dinking by both of our Middles suggests that their timing with Stella isn’t where it needs to be. At least not yet. 

TOMORROW: South Dakota State at 2:30, on MIDCO Sports Plus. If any readers were able to watch tonight’s or tomorrow’s matches on MIDCO Sports Plus, let me know.

READERS RESPOND

Reader C.B. points out that I wasn’t alone in being mistaken about the start-time of last Friday’s match. Wanting to make sure he could still find BTN +, he logged on at 5:42 – and was informed that, “The match will begin in 78 minutes.” So C.B. took a shower and missed the first two sets.

Got the sweep we expected and needed, 25-22, 25-20 & 25-22. Closer than Friday’s sweep of Miami, but it should have been closer — St. Thomas is a better team than Miami, and the Tommies played tough throughout. The Gophs never trailed in Sets 1 or 2, but we did trail early in Set 3, at 0-4 & 4-10. Then a 6-pt run, with Stella serving behind a front-row of Kinney, Blazkova & Gilk, put the Gophs ahead to stay.

As was true a week ago against Auburn, Blazkova played Middle in place of Taylor (for the whole match) and Crossen played Opposite in place of Gilk (for Sets 1 and 2). I feel fairly certain that Gilk will be our starting Opposite when the Gophs open the Big Ten Season at Illinois on Sept 27.

I’m less certain about Taylor. We have 4 respectable Middles; I think our starters are Hoecke and Taylor, but Blazkova looked good today, 4 kills on 7 swings (.429) and 4 blocks. And Minatee, who was a starter when she blew her knee last October, has looked good in warmups. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Minatee and our Left-side Acevedo, also rehabbing from an October knee injury and also looking good in warmups, both get playing time next weekend. Most likely vs South Dakota U.

Today, vs St. Thomas, our star, senior, Left-side, McKenna Wucherer (The Wooker) was the difference separating the two teams. Wooker had 17 kills (.615), including 3 dinks, 2 from the back-row and one from the right-side – plus 2 aces, 2 blocks, and multiple digs, including two Thibault-worthy ones. Technically, the Official Gopher Scorer credited Wooker with 18 kills, but I’m not counting the dink that was respectably dug up by the Tommies setter – and then 2 Tommies stood there expecting the other to take the second touch. (The Official Gopher Scorer also credited Thibault with a kill on an overpass the Tommies misplayed– not buying that one either.)

Kinney had 10 kills – 6 hitting errors so only .174, but she got set-point kills to put away both Set 1 and Set 3 (the close ones). Our serving was awful, 13 errors vs 7 aces – we won’t beat good teams serving like that. 

NEXT UP: 

Back to Sioux Falls, the second trip in 3 weeks, this time to play a pair of South Dakota teams:

South Dakota U on Friday, Sept. 18, 7:00, and

South Dakota State on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2:30.

Both matches will be broadcast on something called “MIDCO Sports Plus.” Not sure how many GopherVBRocks readers will be able to access MIDCO-SP, but I will be there in person to cover the match — in the company of GopherVBRocks reader A.A.

Our #13 ranked Gophers looked good in their Home Opener, crushing the unranked, ACC Hurricanes, 25-15, 25-16 & 25-14. That’s 75-45 for the match, so not close at all. It was 12-12 in the middle of Set 2, but the Gophers, with Wooker serving and a front line of Kinney, Hoecke and Stella, went on an 8 point run to eliminate doubt.

I messed up and missed the first set. Originally, the “Historic” Dial Classic was supposed to be a 4-team event, with the Gophers playing the 2nd of two Friday Matches at 7:00. Then one team dropped out, with our Gophs playing Friday’s only match at 6:00, and I missed the schedule change. A similar thing happened two weeks ago in Sioux Falls, which was supposed to be a 6-team tournament before one team dropped out. That deal did not impact the Gophers, but it caused Creighton to play 3 matches in 3 days, and Purdue to only get one match in. Non-conference scheduling must be done by teenagers on cell-phones. 

But enough about my screw-up, the Gophs were dominant, hitting .373 for the match vs Miami’s .047. As usual, most of our offense came from our pins; Kinney with 9 kills, Wooker and Gilk with 8 each. And Hoecke added 5 (mostly on slides, I think).

You may recall that Wilk was benched against Auburn, following a poor performance against Florida. Crossen played instead of Gilk and looked pretty good against Auburn, so I wasn’t sure who would get the start tonight vs Miami. And I guess I’m not certain who will start on Sunday vs St. Thomas. But I’ve been projecting Gilk as our starting Opposite, and I continue to think so. She certainly had her groove back tonight, with 8 kills on 15 swings (.467). At least her hitting groove, –she had 3 service errors. Wooker hit a modest .318,  but found her serving groove with 6 aces vs 2 errors – excellent serving.

The other presumed starter benched for the previous match vs Auburn was Taylor. Taylor was also back in tonight’s lineup, and as usual she led the Gophers with 4 blocks. But her offense remains a work-in-progress, 3 kills and .268. .268 is respectable for a pin, where anything over .300 is good. But Setters and Liberos feed pins off of bad first passes, when the defense is expecting a set to the pin. Liberos never set Middles, and Setters only feed Middles off of excellent first passes – when the defense can’t key solely on the Middle. We want our Middles to hit .400 or better – Hoecke hit .455 tonight.

And at least two of Taylor’s attempts tonight didn’t even get over the net. She and Stella just aren’t connecting. At least not yet. This could be Stella’s fault, but when the freshman Hoecke hits .455 and the sophomore Taylor hits .268, I think the problem lies with Taylor. Hoecke’s offense looks very polished, especially for a freshman, Taylor’s much less so. 

Minatee, who I expect to be physically ready for the Big Ten Opener, isn’t much of a blocker – but when healthy she’s been an offensive threat. And Blazkova can play too. 3 matches left in the non-conference schedule, and I don’t think the question of who our “regular” Middles will be has been resolved.

St. Thomas on Sunday, 1:00, at the PAV (BTN+) 

WE NEED THE SWEEP!

Next weekend, the Gophers will finish their non-conference schedule back in Sioux Falls, against South Dakota on Friday and South Dakota State on Saturday. I think SDState is the stronger opponent. Both matches will be broadcast on something called “MIDCO Sports Plus.” Not sure how many GopherVBRocks readers will be able to access MIDCO Sports Plus, but I, and reader A.A., will be there in person to report on it.

In 4, confusing sets, our Gophers beat Auburn 25-12, 21-25, 25-16 & 26-24 – to even our record in matches at 2 & 2, and in sets at 7 & 7.

I have to say I was confused watching tonight’s match. The first surprise was a new line-up: Blazkova replacing Taylor at Middle, and Crossen replacing Gilk at Opposite. And Kraft as designated server. My first thought was that Coach Cook was sending a message to Taylor and Gilk that their performance in our first three matches hasn’t been good enough.

Then, trailing 2-5 after a slow start, the Gophers went on a 23-7 to run away with Set-1 – and I thought, “Oh, I get it. Auburn isn’t any good, and Coach wants to give the bench some playing-time.” (Auburn came in 3 & 0, but hadn’t played anyone decent.)

Then in Set-2, the same Gopher lineup played worse than Auburn. We trailed 6-12 & 9-15, and even after a run to get within 20-22, we lost Set-2. And I thought, “Okay Coach, point made, let’s put the first-string back in before we lose the match.” But Coach stayed with the same lineup, we jumped out to a 10-2 lead in Set-3 – and coasted to the 25-16 win.

Then, same lineup for Set-4. We were tied 4-4 & 8-8, slipped behind 11-13 & 14-17, and were tied again at 20-20 and 23-23. And I didn’t know what to think. Losing to Arizona State and Florida hurt our record, but both were close losses to respectable teams. Losing to Auburn would be a BAD loss! A loss that could hurt us for NCAA seeding at the end of the season. Plus we’ve been losing close sets, and who knows how we would play in our first Set-5. Fortunately, we didn’t need to find out.

You can’t say watching the ‘26 Gophers isn’t exciting. We’ve played 14 sets, and 7 of them have been decided by the minimum 2 points. (We’re 3 & 4 in those nail-biters.)

The Wooker did it again, 21 kills tonight, running her total to an even 70 in 4 matches – STAR numbers. Wooker was back-row for those final 2 points of the match, adding to my apprehension, even though she had 2 more back-row kills tonight. She also had 4 aces tonight. And Hoecke had another good night, 8 kills (5 slides, 2 quicks and 1 overpass), 4 blocks and 2 aces. 

The big question is how did our new starters perform?

• Blazkova, replacing Taylor at Middle, had 4 kills and 4 blocks. Slightly more kills than Taylor typically gets. And almost as many blocks as Taylor typically gets. But I didn’t feel that Blazkova had as many partial-blocks or that she changed as many hitting angles as Taylor does.
• Crossen, replacing Gilk at Opposite, had 7 kills and 3 blocks. The 7 kills matches Gilk’s best match (vs Arizona State, a better team than Auburn), but not the production we expect from Gilk.

I was expecting there would be some lineup experimentation during our non-conference schedule. And the second half of this schedule will feature solid but unranked teams (Miami of Florida, St. Thomas, South Dakota and South Dakota State), so I expect we’ll see some more. Plus Acevedo and Minatee have been dressing and warming up. I expect them to be available to play soon – and get at least some playing time before the Big 10 starts. So that will be interesting.

NEXT UP: 

Miami, Friday, Sept 11, 6:00, at the PAV, on BTN+, and 

St. Thomas, Sunday, Sept 13, 1:00, at the PAV, on BTN+

Our now #11 Gophers lose to #17 Florida in 4 sets, 25-27, 26-24, 23-25 & 21-25. 

Set 1: Thanks to the Mich-So.Car match going 5 sets, BTN didn’t begin coverage of the Gopher match until late in Set 1. We were down 20-24, went ahead 25-24, then lost 25-27.

Set 2: It was tied at 5-5, 9-9, 12-12, 19-19, and 24-24 before the Gophs pulled it out 26-24.

Set 3: It was tied at 4-4, 9-9, 13-13, 20-20 and 23-23 before it got away.

Set 4: In a set we needed to win, we started slow and trailed most of the way, 2-5, 4-8 and 7-11. But behind a red-hot Wooker, we rallied to a 21-18 lead. Then when Wooker, by then our only reliable hitter, rotated to back-row, we were unable to produce any offense, allowing the Gators to run 7 points, and take the match.

The good news was Wooker, with 21 kills, 5 from the back-row! With Julie Hanson graduated, I didn’t think we had anyone who could produce from the back-row, but Wooker proved me wrong. Wooker looks primed for a great season!

The other good news was our freshman Middle, Hoecke, who produced 10 kills (1 overpass, 2 quicks & 7 slides), and at least 2 blocks. It doesn’t look like Hoecke has any intention of going to the bench when Minatee is healthy. Taylor had 2 kills (both quicks) and 7 blocks.

Gilk was awful, and Coach Cook benched her late in Set 3 – sliding Kinney over to Opposite and bringing the freshman Crossen in at leftside. Kinney had been playing okay at leftside, and has played Opposite most of her career. But she wasn’t particulary effective at Opposite tonight, especially not during Florida’s 7 point run at the end of the match. 

I don’t know what’s wrong with Gilk. She was an All-Big-10 Freshman last year, and is the only Gopher on this year’s All-Big-10 Team. Whatever it is, I hope that Gilk and/or the coaching staff can fix it quickly. I don’t know the timetable for Acevedo’s return from last October’s knee injury, but if Gilk doesn’t turn it around soon, Kinney’s move to Opposite could become permanent — and Acevedo will be our other starting leftside.

Thanks to Wooker, we outhit Florida .274 to .245, but we had 11 serve-receiving errors, 4 by Palabiyik and 3 by Gilk, to Florida’s 4 – enough to make the difference in a close match. I think Palabiyik is probably the best serve-receiver on the team, but she has to be more assertive than she was tonight, especially on balls between her and other Gophers. She was assertive in 2024 and before she got injured last season – we need that from her.

The other discouraging development is that we are now 3 & 5 in sets decided by 2 points. Plus the embarrassing loss by 4 when we were up 3 late in tonight’s 4th set. Last year, once our freshmen bench got their confidence up, the Gophers were winning the close ones. There are going to be a lot of close sets and close matches ahead – we need to get that confidence back.

NEXT UP: Unranked Auburn, 5:00 this afternoon (Wednesday) on FS1. The Gophers cannot afford to lose another one.

READERS RESPOND

Since I was unable to attend the Gopher’s Aug 22 exhibition match at #33-ranked Iowa State, I asked readers for help. And frequent GopherVBRocks contributor R.A., also unable to make it to Ames, forwarded comments (below) that he had seen elsewhere. These are not my thoughts nor those of R.A., and I am somewhat reluctant to post material from unknown and therefore untrusted sources. But since I asked, here they are:

ANONYMOUS: “Garr: bad, constantly out of position. Most of ISUs point to zone 5.

Wucherer: bad, lots of errors. Not in our receive, but played all around.

Crosson: glimmer of hope. Needs to work on her swing mechanics, but decent backrow play.

Taylor: looking lost. Needs Pedro’s mentorship more than anyone.

Hoecke and Blazkova: good. Should be starters

Z: noticeable improvement by the team when she was the L, but she’s moving a lot slower (understandably so). Still likely not ready to play L full time

Gilk: by far our best pin and it’s not close. Did not play 6 rotations at all.

Stella: bad. Location off and erratic decision making. Hitters constantly having to make adjustments leading to points for ISU.

Kinney’s stats were rough.

Acevedo and Minatee dressed but did not play.

Serving as a team completely regressed since Crissy departed, no service pressure.” 

R.A.’s thoughts re the loss to ASU: “We were simply outplayed. Wooker was stellar in every way,  a great sign when her serving had previously been a liability. And I forgot that Stella and Wooker had never played together before – one more learning challenge as the season unfolds. Gilk and Kinney also looked solid. Our Middles didn’t do much. I suspect Stella played better than the commentators acknowledged.” 

G.O.’s thoughts re the loss to ASU: “Like last year, Taylor had a lot of net violations. That alone was the difference in the two close sets. Also, even when we get a free ball, we don’t return it with any authority. Season is early. Hopefully all this talent can gel.” 

Gophs won 25-18, 25-23 & 25-12, evening their season record at 1 & 1 in matches and 3 & 3 in sets. So “even-steven,” a Seinfeld episode. Given that our #14 ranked Gophs travelled to Sioux Falls to play #12 ranked Arizona State and #13 ranked Creighton, a split was the most likely weekend outcome. If we had won on Friday, I’d have been disappointed. But given our inability to “win the close ones” on Friday, I was delighted to get the split.

The sweeps, though, were a surprise. One might expect 14/12 or 14/13 matchups to go 5 sets. Give our Gophers credit for heart, after losing the first two sets to Arizona State on Friday, we fought hard trying to extend the match – losing the 3rd set 23-25. But on Saturday, Creighton folded.

For the match, Creighton had 21 hitting errors (more than double the Gophs’ 10) and 8 service errors. Their 8 service errors were one less than the Gophs’ 9, but I feel the Gophs’ 9 service errors were spread across 3 sets, whereas the Bluejay service errors were concentrated (6 maybe) in the 2nd set, which they might have won with better serving. (I can still hear the groaning from the Creighton fans seated behind me.)

It seems worth noting that both the Gophs and Jays were playing Sat afternoon following tough Friday evening matches. The Gophs finished Friday’s match at 11pm and started Saturday’s match at 4pm. The Jays finished around 8:30 pm on Saturday, but that was a 5-set match. Then again, these are young women –who should be able to handle a short turn-around better than my 75U men’s team.

On to the details of individual performance. I’ve been writing for months that Wooker’s performance will be a key to our 2026 season, so Wooker’s 18 kill, .421 night in the loss to ASU helped ease my disappointment. Wooker again led the Gophs against Creighton, but with a more modest 10 kills (1 back-row) and .222 %. But on Friday, Wooker had been Stella’s only weapon – much better offensive balance in the sweep of Creighton.

Especially our Middles! On Friday, our Middles posted a total of 7 kills, but 3 of those were by Taylor off of ASU overpasses. So only 3 kills in 3 sets off of passes from Stella, 1 by Blazkova, who started, and 3 by Hoecke who subbed in halfway through the 2nd set. But Saturday, Hoecke played the whole match and posted 7 kills (.500), 4 off slides and 3 off quicks. And Taylor posted 4 kills (.571) 3 of which on passes from Stella. So 10 offensive Middle kills in 3 sets vs Creighton – a huge and must-needed improvement over the 3 vs ASU. Exactly the balance we need to keep the pressure off our pins.

I had predicted, pre-season, that our depth-chart at Middle went Taylor, Minatee, Hoecke, and Blazkova, so I was surprised to see us start Taylor, and Blazkova. Hoecke looked great against Creighton, so maybe I’m a lot smarter than Coach Cook. More likely, Blazkova’s start was injury related. Both nights, Hoecke warmed up with some sort of brace or wrap over her shoulder (her left shoulder, fortunately, as she is right-handed), but took it off to play. Maureen reports (I didn’t catch this) that she puts it back on when she’s not on the court – and she’s a Middle, so half the time. 

Minatee, coming back from last October’s ACL injury, did not play at all over the weekend. I watched her close during yesterday’s warmups. She looked okay, no sign of favoring a knee. (Despite my role as creator and primary contributor to GopherVBRocks, I have not been given insider access to individual player medical reports). But if Hoecke continues to play like she did against Creighton, Minatee is merely bench-strength anyway,

I am not overly worried about Taylor’s offensive production. Her defensive presence at the net will always be her major contribution, and any offensive kills are frosting on the cake. (BTW, I like frosting.) Taylor only had 2 blocks against Creighton, but she often gets pieces of balls, which are then easier to dig, and she changes the angles on other opponent hits – likely contributing to Creighton’s 21 hitting errors.

Kinney and Gilk were steady, 7 kills and 5 respectively, in 3 sets. I’d love to see those numbers even stronger, which would increase our offensive balance.

But as I said, a weekend split against equivalently ranked teams was statistically likely. And there’s a long season ahead.

NEXT UP: The Big 10/ACC Challenge offering another pair of neutral-site matchups vs strong non-conference teams:

• FLORIDA, #17 ranked, in Madison, this Tuesday, 8 p.m., BTN, and
• AUBURN, unranked, in Madison, this Wednesday, 5  p.m, FS1.

I will not be making the trip to Madison, but I’ll be glued to the tube – expecting the Gophs to win both.

Our Gophs were swept by ASU, 24-26, 17-25 & 23-25, Two of the 3 sets were 2-pointers, but good teams find a way to win the close sets – and tonight Arizona State was the better team. Arizona State is a good team, maybe better than their #12 ranking, but getting swept by a team ranked equivalently is disappointing.

There was some good news:

• Wooker is back! Adequate won’t get it; this Gopher squad needs Wooker to lead the team – and tonight she did! I had her with 18 kills, including 1 from the back row, and a .421 percentage. 18 kills in 3 sets is a very strong outing. I thought she also served well, 2 aces and 2 errors; I’ll take that every match. And her serve-receive held up; I had her with one poor receive in about a dozen attempts. The best news is that there was no indication of a back problem. Tonight’s match ended at 11pm, and tomorrow’s match starts at 4pm – I’ll be very interested to see if she can play well with such a short turn-around.
• Kinney had 10 kills, not bad for 3 sets.
• And Palabiyik is back – less of a surprise. I had her with 1 receiving error in about 20 attempts.
• Garr had 1 ace and 1 error, but I felt she served strong all night.

The most discouraging thing, besides the sweep, was the non-existent offense from our Middles. A total of 3 kills in 3 sets.

• I had Taylor with 3 additional kills, but all 3 were off of ASU overpasses – Taylor put zero balls away off about a dozen sets from Stella.
• Blazkova started, got 1 early kill, on a quick, then disappeared.
• Hoecke subbed in for Blazkova late in Set 2, and had 2 kills off quicks.
• I had predicted that Minatee would get the start, but she didn’t play at all. It’s possible that she isn’t completely healthy, but she was dressed and looked okay. And based on prior years, a healthy Minatee, though too short to block much, has been our most effective offensive Middle, so I was surprised that she didn’t play. I’ll watch her closer in today’s warmups.
• A total of 3 Middle-kills, 1 back-row kill, and zero from Stella in 2 attempts. Not enough to prevent a good ASU defense from focusing their attention on our pins.

Gilk’s performance was also disappointing, 7 kills at a .130 clip. Gilk is our only pre-season All Big 10 player, and Stella fed her a lot, especially early. We need more from Gilk.

At least for this first match, my depth-chart predictions were pretty close.

• Gilk, Wooker, and Kinney as our pins. Crossen came in to serve a couple times, but neither she nor Acevedo played otherwise.
• Palabiyik, Garr, and Thibault, in that order, at Libero. Kraft did not play. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kraft “red-shirts” this season (though under the new rules, I’m not sure “red-shirt” is still a thing.)  
• I was off on our Middles. Taylor was #1. But Blazkova got the other start, later replaced by Hoecke, who I thought would be ahead of  Blazkova. And Minatee, who I expected to start, didn’t play – maybe injured?

Hoping for a better performance vs Creighton tomorrow, but Creighton beat Purdue in the match prior to MN v ASU.

Lots of Gopher fans in attendance.

Our #14 ranked Gophers officially open their 2026 season tomorrow (Friday) with a match vs #12 Arizona State in Sioux Falls. Followed by a Saturday match vs #13 Creighton, also in Sioux Falls. Part of a 6-team “State Farm Showcase.” Friday’s match vs ASU will be on FOX9+, approximately at 8 pm, and Saturday’s match vs Creighton will be on FS1, approximately at 4 pm. But both matches follow earlier matches, so these times are approximate. Maureen and I will be attending in person.

The Gophers earlier played 2 exhibition matches, one vs #2 ranked Texas at Texas and another vs #27 ranked Iowa State at Ames. I was unable to travel to either match, and since they were “exhibitions,” there was no TV., because they were “exhibitions.” The Gophs apparently got pounded by the Longhorns in 4 sets. I haven’t seen a word about how the ISU match went. (If any readers have info about either of these exhibition matches, I’d be happy to post it. 

I assume that Coach Cook would have played every healthy player, at least a little, in these exhibition matches. This weekend’s matches are non-conference, but they count – especially for NCAA seeding in December. So I assume both sides will be playing to win, meaning fewer substitutions. I don’t imagine that Coach Cook will be locked into a permanent rotation for the entire season this early, but he should have strong ideas by now, and I am very excited to see which directions he is leaning.

Stella is our Setter; end of discussion. But there will be significant competition at the other positions:

• 6 Outside Hitters for 3 positions, Gilk, The Wooker, Kinney, Acevedo, Crossen, and Olivia
• 4 Middles for 2 positions, Taylor, Minatee, Hoecke, and Blazkova;
• 4 Liberos for 2 (maybe 3) positions, Palabiyik, Garr, Thibault, and Kraft.  

I listed them in the order I think they stand on the depth chart – but I expect to know more by Saturday Evening.