Author: jktrpp

[For the second time this season, I finished my story of the match just after midnight (the match didn’t end until almost 11, and I’m a slow typist — maybe I should switch to chat-bot), only to learn that my blog-host was under-going maintenance (apparently they think midnight central-time is a good time for that, GopherVBallRocks gets no respect). “Try again in a few minutes,” the screen says. Nope, I went to bed.]

Two weeks ago, when Oregon routed us in 3 sets, on our home court, I described our Gophers as “overmatched.” But the Badgers seem to bring out the best in the ’24 Gophs . Back in September, we beat the Badgers at the Pav in 5 sets, winning the fifth set 18-16. Tonight in Madison, the Badgers evened the series, 21-25, 25-12, 25-22, 20-25 & 18-20! If you like sports, you can’t find better entertainment than watching Gopher v Badger VBall.

And as was true at the Pav, the Gophs won the composite score. It surprises me, a little, that in the 413 points contested between these two teams over ten sets, our relatively undersized Gophs (Gopher Pins, Hanson, Grote and Wooker, all 6-1, and in one rotation, the Badgers’ front line is 6-4 2023 Player of the Year Sarah Franklin, 6-7 former Gopher Carter Booth, and 6-9 Anna Smrek) won 211 of them. Our hitters were not intimidated. (Maybe a bit in Set 4, too much dinking for my taste, and Wooker the only one any good at it.) Our trio all posted double-digit kills, Hanson 20, Grote 17 and Wooker 15, whereas only Badger Franklin (19) had at least 15. The Badgers have more offensive weapons than we do, but for the second time this year, we out-hit the towering Badgers .208 to .158.

How did we keep it so close? For one thing, Shaffmaster and Palbiyik are clearly superior to their Badger counterparts Fuerbringer and Damrow. These Badgers are both freshmen, and will surely be better next year, but this freshmen combo will likely prevent this weapon-rich Badger Team from reaching this year’s Final Four. Plus Minatee, who played great against the much bigger Wisconsin Middles in September, but has been close to useless for the past 3 or 4 weeks, once again had a strong match (6 kills & 4 blocks).

Both teams made miraculous saves, leading to dozens of long rallies, but Wisconsin just a few more? And Wisconsin’s ace to service error to receiving error ratio was just slightly better than ours – very much the difference in Set 1, too many service errors by Shaffmaster & Hanson) and Set 4 (too many receiving errors by Acevedo. Interstingly,, Acevedo also played most of the September win over the Badgers.

UP NEXT: The Iowegians, at the Pav, Saturday, 7:30, BTN+  Hint: The Gophers will sweep.

Gophs over Wolverines in four sets, 25-8, 24-26, 25-17 & 25-15. The Gopher “pins,” collectively with 51 kills and a .357 % (Hanson 24, .400!, Grote 16, .342 and Wooker, back in the line-up, even if not 100% healthy, with 10, .250) were too strong for Michigan. 

We swept Michigan at Ann Arbor (25-23, 25-19 & 25-21 )just 2 weeks ago, and one might think that if we swept them at Ann Arbor, shouldn’t we sweep them at the Pav? But in one sense, today’s match was less close. The composite score at Ann Arbor was 75 – 63, and today’s composite score, even though we dropped Set 2, was 99 – 66. And while I’m making comparisons, let’s look at Thursday’s loss at Lincoln, where we stunk-up Set 1, but came back to win Set 2 before losing in 4 sets – just like the Wolverines today. at the Pav. The composite score in Lincoln was 78-97, a more respectable loss, for what it’s worth, than today’s effort by Michigan. One could argue, and I guess I will, that our 6th-place Gophers (10 & 6 in Big 10 play after today’s win) are closer, in quality, to unbeaten Nebraska than we are to 6 & 10 Michigan.

Acevedo was another bright spot. She didn’t set foot in the front row, but served for Wooker, as she has been doing, and today stayed in the back row to receive serve and dig. Earlier in the season, especially during the Gophers’ California trip, Acevedo was a major liability in serve-receive, but I didn’t score her with a single receiving error today. Plus, she served 7 aces, vs only one error! Granted, this was more about Michigan’s receiving problems than Acevedo’s devastating serves – but 7-1 is a nice ratio. I’d guess she served maybe 30 % of the Gopher points.

Back to Hanson (another comparison), it was disappointing when we learned, last winter, that Landfair, capable of “shock & awe” kills, was transferring to Nebraska, but it created an opportunity for Hanson to play front row, an opportunity she hadn’t had during her freshman & sophomore years. Look at these numbers:

• In 94 sets, coming into today, (these numbers will go up after today’s performance) Hanson has 418 kills (3.88/set) with a hitting % of .270. 
• All last year, Landfair had 361 kills ((3.19/set) with a hitting % of .222. 
• And so far this year, for the Huskers, Landfair has 150 kills (2.54/set) with a hitting % of .237.

Plus Hanson is starting to produce those intimidating “shock & awe” kills. And Hanson, while not a star receiver/digger, is much less of a liability than Landfair was. We aren’t missing Landfair much.

NEXT UP: Wednesday, 8:00, our 6th place in the Big 10, currently #16 ranked nationally (shouldn’t change much) Gophs visit 3rd place in the Big 10 (at 14 & 2), #6 ranked nationally Wisconsin (BTN). The Badgers will no doubt  remember that their only conference loss (besides to Nebraska) was at the Pav, and be pumped for revenge. But there is no reason for this Gopher squad to feel intimidated.

I said I’d be thrilled if the Gophs could win a set in Lincoln, and they did exactly that, Huskers in 4, 12-25, 25-22, 22-25 & 19-25. Third straight loss for our Gophs, though. Some might think it pathetic for a Gopher fan to feel good about losing in 4 sets, but consider that the 25 & 1, #2 ranked Huskers, are unbeaten in Lincoln, haven’t lost a match since Sept 3, and swept Stanford, Louisville, Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington. We broke Nebraska’s 16-set win-streak when we took Set 2. After a dismal Set 1, when the Gophs couldn’t do much of anything right, we played the mighty Huskers almost even the rest of the way. And we did it without Wooker, who didn’t suit up. Not unreasonable to believe that we might have done even better with a healthy Wooker.

Hanson was terrific, with 20 kills (more than any Husker), including 3 from the back-row. Grote was good, with 14 kills. Acevedo, playing for Wooker, started slow (though she did serve well in Set 2), but came alive as a hitter in Set 4, and dug better than I recall her digging previously. We had guests to watch the match on BTN, and avid reader S.H. was very down on Taylor Landfair, who, as I predicted, is a starting Leftside for the Huskers (she had 12 kills tonight). I understand S.H.’s hard feelings, but try not to take it personally. Our mistake, when Landfair was a Gopher, was allowing her to receive serve; she was terrible at it, and I think her failure as a receiver affected her hitting. As I predicted, Nebraska doesn’t let her touch a receive. (Acevedo found her once, and Landfair misplayed it. That felt good.) Except for Set 1, it was great volleyball, with lots of great saves by both teams; I wish the Gophs had played as well last weekend at the Pav. Unfortunately, the Huskers just don’t have many weaknesses, they serve well, dig great, hit great and block great. I’ll be surprised if they don’t make the Final Four.

NEXT UP: Sunday, 2:00, at the Pav, vs Michigan (BTN+)  We swept Michigan at Michigan 11 days ago. 

After that, we have to travel to Madison, where the Badgers will be hungry for revenge. But then we finish the Big 10 season with 3 “winnable” matches. A 13 & 7 Big 10 finish would be respectable, and definitely worth an NCAA invite.

STRONG ‘25 RECRUITING CLASS

“Signing Day” was this week, and all 4 Gopher recruits signed as expected, reportedly a top-ten recruiting class. Included were Libero McKenna Garr of Rush City, MN, Opposite Carly Gilk of Champlin Park, MN,  Outside Hitter Kelly Kinney from West Palm Beach, Fla, and Middle Jordan Taylor from Houston, TX 

GILK, A 6-1, left-handed Opposite, Gilk was the #1 rated recruit in MN, and #27 nationally. I made it to the Xcel last week for some H.S.V.B. tournament action, including the opportunity to watch Gilk lead Champlin Park over East Ridge in the AAAA Semis. I did not see the Championship Match (which Champlin Park lost in 5 sets to Lakeville South), but including the Consolation Bracket, I got to see all 8 AAAA teams, and Gilk very clearly stood out as the best player in the AAAA tourney. She hit effectively from the right-side, the left-side, the middle and the back-row, though East Ridge, a very good team, was aware of Gilk’s location at all times, and managed to block her a few times. The exciting thing is that Gilk was also Champlin Park’s best serve-receiver, a skill the Gophers are much in need of.

GARR, led her Rush City team to the State as a Setter and Outside Hitter, but, at 5-7, has played Libero for Northern Lights, and has long been considered the best MN Libero since CC McGraw. I haven’t seen Garr play, but a couple of GopherVBRocks readers saw her in the H.S.V.B. tournament, and reported that she also stood out. You never know how high school performance will translate to D1 ball, vs bigger/stronger players, but Gilk, Garr & Palabiyik (2 years of eligibility remaining) could be a pretty strong receiving corps.

Kinney, a 6-2 Outside Hitter,  is at #11, the highest rated nationally among the 4. She led her club team to a National Championship this summer, played on the U19 National Team in 2023 and 2024, and participated on the 2023 U21 National Team at the FIVB World Championships. (Can’t have too many strong Outside Hitters.)

Taylor is a 6-5 Middle. I’m not finding anything about her ranking as a prospect, but 3 weeks ago, she had the 2nd most kills of any HS player in Texas (a big state), and she has the height our current Middles lack.

And don’t forget Stella Swenson. Stella isn’t currently red-shirting because she isn’t ready for Big 10 competition, she’s red-shirting because Shaffmaster elected to use her covid-bonus year of eligibility. If you add Swenson to Gilk, Garr, Kinney, and Taylor, this will make a very strong class of Freshmen next fall.

[Very busy day, yesterday, didn’t find time to write this until this morning. I guess most of you already know how it went.]

Our Minnesota Gophers and the Oregon Ducks went into yesterday’s match at the PAV with identical conference records of 9 & 5, predictive of a competitive match, two prospective Sweet-Sixteen teams, perhaps. But this illusion was shattered as soon as play began, Ducks in three, 14-25, 20-25, & 21-25, the first time we’ve been swept at the Pav in over two years. Honestly, Oregon played great, like a potential Final Four team, and our Gophs played like a team likely good enough to earn an NCAA invite – but unlikely to advance.

The most glaring difference was in the blocking. We had 3 blocks in the 3 sets, vs about 15 for Oregon, but the difference was worse in Set 1, where they out-blocked us 0-6. No wonder we got crushed. I mentioned 2 things in my brief scouting report; that the Ducks play a 6-2 (which gives them a slight advantage in blocking, but one mostly negated by the fact that Shaffmaster is a strong blocker), and that they play a “high-tempo” offense. This means that their sets are often “flat,” giving opposing blockers less time to set their blocks. Meanwhile, our mediocre serve-receive (mediocre being a big improvement over our performance vs Washington), combined with our lack of Middle-Offense, means our sets run highly-arced, giving opposing blockers more time.

Calissa Minatee, one of our “starting” Middles, has been respectable on offense, but has struggled all season to get outside quick enough to help block an opponent’s pins, and was worse than usual in our last couple of matches. Reacting to this, Coach Cook benched her for Sets 1 & 2, in favor of Kali Engeman, surely a good volleyball player, but not Big 10 quality. Engeman couldn’t get there either. Cook went back to Minatee for Set 3, which helped a little, but not enough.

I don’t want to catastrophize; 3 of our 4 reliable players performed well. Hanson had 18 kills (more than any Duck) and was responsible for a 4-point surge in Set 3, Shaffmaster posted her 12th double-double of the season, and Palabiyik played well. Grote not so much, only 4 kills through 2 sets, and was benched for Set 3, in favor of Crowl. I’m guessing the thinking was that Crowl is maybe a stronger blocker – but very unproductive on offense. (Interesting quote from Cook on the official Gopher Website, “It’s tough to hear, but we were making too many changes and we don’t want to be doing that at this time of year.” Who is responsible for that? If one were to scroll backwards through GopherVBRocks to last January, one would read me screaming about the need to recruit better Middles! Engeman and Crowl were not the answer.)

The situation with Wooker is complicated. She is our only hitter who ever scores on a dink, and she got a couple in Set 1 when nothing else was working, and her serve-receives were adequate (a big improvement). But midway through Set 2, she went down while attempting to save an awkward ball, and got up very slowly. Cook left her in for one more point, and took her out. Acevedo was not the answer either, so. Wooker came back in the middle of Set 3, and earned a couple of power-kills. But didn’t look right to me. She sat out several entire matches earlier in the season with an “undisclosed” injury (I think it’s her lower-back); I don’t think Wooker has been 100% healthy at any time this season, and still isn’t. 

Speaking of injuries, play was stopped (during live action) with Oregon Opposite Sophie Gregoire lying on the floor (I did not see her go down). After a lengthy delay, Gregoire was basically carried to the Gopher locker room (a flight of stairs is required to reach the Pav’s visiting locker room). Lower-leg, I think, I hope she’s okay – but I’m guessing not.

NEXT UP: It gets worse before it gets better, Thursday, Nov 14, 8:00, BTN, at Lincoln. The #2-ranked Huskers opened the season at #2, dropped to #5 following a loss at SMU, and have won every match since, including last Thursday’s sweep of the Ducks at Eugene. They also swept the Badgers at Madison and swept at Louisville.

When Landfair transferred to Nebraska, I predicted that our 2022 Big 10 Player of the Year would be a star hitter – but never be allowed to touch a serve. A newcomer, Landfair had to prove herself, but has done so and is now one of the Huskers starting  Leftsides. And besides not letting her play back-row (as the Gophers did) the Husker coaching staff has devised a clever way to keep opponents from targeting her when she’s front-row. At least in her 2 “corner” receives, Landfair stands just barely in-bounds (VB rules require that), and takes 2 quick steps out-of-bounds as soon as the server contacts the ball – hard to “target” a player who’s out-of-bounds.

I won’t say it is impossible for our Gophers to avoid their 3rd straight loss, that’s what makes sports fun. But I would be thrilled if the Gophers could win a set.

[I wrote this last night, but couldn’t post it because my bolg-host site was undergoing maintenance.]

Tonight’s match vs #27 Washington, our #14 Gophers’ 23rd match of the season, was only their 2nd 4-set match. And like their first one, at Southern Cal, the Gophers lost. Tonight 21-25, 23-25, 25-14, 22-25. The Gophers out-scored the Huskies 91-89 in the composite score, and in an even more striking anomaly, the Gophs decisively out-hit the Huskies .248 to .123. 

How, one might ask, do you out-hit an opponent 248 to .123 and lose? Exactly what I suggested in my previous post scouting report: Washington is a very strong serving team, and serve-receive is the Gophers Achilles Heel. Hanson led the Gophs with 15 kills, 13 for Grote and 12 for Wooker (who had the best % at .286) But, officially (it was really worse than this), Washington served 13 aces vs 2 service-errors, compared to 6 aces and 11 errors by the Gophs. Hanson, with 4 service-errors was the leader in this negative category, but the real problem was our serve-receive. Wooker had a really bad night receiving. Palabiyik and Thibault contributed a few receiving-errors, but it was Wooker that killed us. Serving and receiving well in Set 3, we won easily.

Set 2 was the killer. From an 8-8 tie, the Gophs went on a nice run to reach 18-11. After committing 5 receiving-errors in Set 1, we had not made a single receiving-error on the way to this commanding Set 2 lead. And then the wheels fell off! The Huskies won 10 of the next 11 points, 6 of them on Aces, all served at  Wooker. There were cries, in section 110, to bench Wooker, but for whom? The last time we saw Acevedo in serve-recieve was that disastrous loss at Southern Cal, when Acevedo was even worse than Wooker was tonight. Instead, Coach Cook made the only reasonable adjustment, leaving Wooker on the court, but taking her out of serve-receive, using Hanson instead.

ANOTHER PROBLEM: I wrote, in my write-up of the Michigan Match, that Minatee had been a non-factor. (I don’t get what’s wrong with Minatee, who has looked so good at times.) She was useless again this evening, through the first set and a half. I groaned when Cook replaced her with Kali Engeman, who I have been skeptical of from the get, based on her “nothing” career prior to the Gophers. BUT, Engeman, while not great, was okay, with 5 kills on 9 attempts, and a couple of blocks – definitely an improvement over Minatee’s recent play.

But I should give Wshington credit, Leftside Hitter Bush pounded out 19 of the Huskies’ 46 kills, they served really well (as I told you they would) and their D.S., Heard, while making little impression in the scorebook, had half-a-dozen spectacular second-touch saves on balls that we thought were already Gopher points. Washington trails the Gophs in the Big Ten Standings, is well behind the Gophs in the national rankings, and they can’t hit with the Gophers. But they beat us on our court.

UP NEXT: Saturday, 3:00, at the Pav, vs Oregon (finally BTN). They don’t serve as tough as Washington, but they’re higher-ranked, they run a high-tempo offense, which will challenge our Middles to run pin-to-pin to block, and despite being swept by the Huskers this evening, they seem a better team, on paper, than Washington or our Gophers.

Followed by a trip to Lincoln! We really need to beat the Ducks. 

This afternoon’s win at Ann Arbor, 25-23, 25-19 & 25-21 was the Gophers’ 3rd straight Big 10 road win (4th win overall, counting the win over Northwestern at the Pav). None of our recent opponents were ranked, but don’t underestimate the value of road-wins in the best conference in the country. Ohio State and Michigan State have poor conference records, but we needed 5 sets to beat the Buckeyes, overtime in the 3rd set to beat Michigan State, and today’s win over the Wolverines, 500 in the Big 10, was hard fought also.

Set 1: We trailed 1-4, 4-7, 8-11, and were tied 11-11, 17-17, 20-20 & 23-23 before winning the set on Lydia Grote’s ace (her only ace of the match). Deservingly so, because this set was all Grote. Grote has a history, in her season & a half with the Gophs, of coming out hot in Set 1s, while others are still warming up. But she was injured late at Penn State, didn’t dress for Northwestern, played but didn’t look like herself against Ohio State. She was back on form today, keeping us in Set 1, finishing the match with a team-leading 13 kills – plus that critical ace.

Set 2: With Hanson (12 kills for the match) and Wooker (11 kills for the match) coming alive, to provide offensive balance, this was our easiest set of the match. One of the highlights was a Shaffmaster kill. Shaffmaster kills are common this season, but usually on 2nd touches; this was a 3rd-touch-kill off of a nice, cross-court set from Hanson. You don’t see many setters capable of 3rd-touch kills.

Set 3: A tight set, with none of the 3 & 4 point runs seen in Sets 1 & 2. Tied at 4-4, 8-8 & 12-12. With the Gophs leading 17-15, there were 9 consecutive sideouts, taking us to 21-20, before a couple of Michigan errors helped us get the sweep.

Random Notes:

• Michigan’s top hitter was injured in their previous match, and did not play.
• I have previously ripped our new West Coast Schools for their pathetic attendance. The BTN+ announcer said that today’s match was sold out; but the weird, little, gym the Wolverines play in doesn’t seem to have any seating on one side or one end, and the areas that might have had ample seating were behind the camera, so you couldn’t prove it by me. Come on, Michigan, use some of that football $ to upgrade your volleyball facility.
• Officially, Minatee had 1 kill, on 6 swings, and 5 blocks; but that was generous scorekeeping, I had her with zero kills and 1 block – a non-factor in today’s match.
• Volleyball teams typically have strong and weak rotations. Our weak rotation is receiving serve when Grote starts front-left and Wooker front-right. They can easily switch across with Shaffmaster serving, but a cross-court, double-switch is tricky when receiving, so Grote hits left-side (where she is less effective) and Wooker hits right-side (where she seems completely ineffective). Everyone of Michigan’s runs, 3-pointers twice in Set 1, a 4-pointer in Set 2, and a 5-pointer in Set 3, all came serving at this rotation. It is what it is, but what I don’t understand is why we sometimes start sets in this rotation? Come on Coach Cook, check the stats.
• Today’s win raises our conference record to 9 & 3, putting us in a 3-way tie for 4th place with Oregon and Purdue.

NEXT UP: (back home at last)

• Thursday, 7:00 (again on BTN+), vs a tough Washington squad, full of players recruited and coached by Cook. I had a chance to watch their 5-set win over arch-rival Oregon last week: Washington runs a 6-2; they are the most aggressive serving team I’ve seen all year (sure to put a lot of pressure on our receive); and they have two very good leftside hitters (one of whom was injured late in that match, I don’t know what her status is).
• Saturday, 3:00, vs a very tough Oregon (finally BTN). Oregon run a high-tempo offense (which will challenge our Middles to run pin-to-pin to block) led by Left-side hitter #15 and Opposite # 3; and they’ll triple-block on occasion (which ought to give Wooker some open space for dinking).

Sweeping these matches would be sweet; getting swept would be disastrous.

But hang in to sweep the overmatched Spartans, 25-15, 25-15, 28-26. Michigan State has a mid-point record only slightly more dismal than Ohio State, but are not nearly as feisty as the Buckeye team that took Sets 1 & 2 from the Gophs last Sunday. The Spartans dominate Big Ten Women’s Water Polo (at least when I was coaching), but can’t seem to build a competitive Volleyball Team. Sparty had no answer for Julia Hanson (16 kills and a .519 %) or Melanie Shaffmaster (4 kills and 35 assists). At times, it looked too easy.

Set 1:  Gophs led 5-1, 12-6 and 19-8 before coasting to the 25-15 finish.       Set 2: Gophs led only 8-7 until a 5-pt run built their lead to 13-7, triggering a double-sub of McGhie and Crowl for Shaffmaster and Grote, and the 6-2. But it didn’t slow us down; same 25-15 finish.                                     Set 3: Back to the 5-1 with Shaffmaster and Grote, but Engeman in for Awoleye, and Gray & Minatee in the service rotation. We trailed, 3-5, pulled ahead 8-6 and 17-14, but were tied at 20-20 and 26-26 before kills by Grote and Wooker finished the match.

Random Notes:

• Coach Cook is much more inclined to use his bench when he feels the match is under control, than McCutcheon ever was. I’m fairly certain that McCutcheon would have kept the starters on the court for at least 2 ½ sets.
• The Gophers have never been good at dinking/off-speed hits, or had an individual who was proficient at it. But Wooker might be becoming the exception;  I had her with 10 kills tonight, 5 power swings and 5 off-speed swings.
• I had us with 6 aces and 11 service errors; not the ratio we want.                                  

NEXT UP: 

• Sunday, AT Michigan (again on BTN+, not my fault). Michigan is a better team than Michigan State, and they’re playing at home, but they’re not as good as the Gophers. We need to keep our streak of beating mediocre teams going.
• Next Thursday and Saturday, the Gophers are back at the Pav against strong teams, Thursday vs #27 Washington (again on BTN+) and Saturday vs #10 Oregon (finally BTN). Be nice to win all 3 of these; critical to win at least 2 of the 3.

I promised you that a healthy* Gopher squad would win at Columbus. I also suggested it wouldn’t be easy, and would require aggressive serving (which comes with risks) to take the Buckeyes out-of-system. But I wasn’t expecting the extreme thrill of a REVERSE SWEEP. Gophers in five, 16-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-16, 15-10. Julia Hanson’s 20+ kills keeping us alive until Set 5, which Shaffmaster, Minatee & Wooker dominated. (I think Grote got match-point.)

As the scores suggest, the Gophers got crushed in Sets 1 & 2 – not because we were playing badly so much as because we were serving cautiously, and the Buckeyes, led by the outstanding Emily Londot, were side-outing at around 90% (I’m guessing). Conversely, the Buckeyes served at Wooker all afternoon; she was okay, but her receive was not perfect like OSU’s. If the old-time scoring system had been in effect, we would have lost Set 1 15-1, because we couldn’t buy a point while serving. And we even ran out of substitutions in Set 2, requiring Wooker to serve (and she missed it).

DISCLOSURE:Things looked so hopeless at the end of Set 2, I was thinking that my headline would be Gophers were not really healthy:

• Grote, who didn’t play the final set at Penn State last Sunday, and didn’t even dress for Northwestern on Wednesday, was back in the line-up, displaying no obvious signs of injury. But she was far from the dominant Grote we’re used to seeing. 
• Wooker (who I don’t think has been healthy all season) also played most of the match (except serving), but went down awkwardly late in Set 2 – and didn’t get up, even as play continued. I think (HIPPA doesn’t apply to me speculating) Wooker has been playing with a lower-back injury, and she re-injured it on this play. She was replaced by Acevedo. But to my surprise, Wooker was back on the court a few points later.

The Gophs took their first real lead of the match at 11-7 in Set 3, but when the Buckeyes pulled to within 18-17 and 22-21, I was not feeling confident yet. And even after winning Set 3, we were tied 10-10 in Set 4. Moreover, I wasn’t seeing dramatic changes in the back & forth of play; we served just a bit more aggressively, Wooker’s receive was a little better, and we blocked a little better – all subtle stuff.

Set 5: The Buckeyes took early leads of 0-2 and 3-5. Not panic-time yet, but worrisome in a 15-pt tie-breaker. Then Hanson served her only ace of the day, Minatee converted 2 consecutive slide-kills, and Shaffmaster, who has been great in the clutch throughout her career, dominated. She scored on a block of a Gopher overpass; do you realize how difficult that is? And as she often does in fifth sets, she had 2 kills. And, at least briefly, a fired-up Wooker looked like the healthy Wooker we want to see.

This was a really important match. For one thing, road-wins against decent Big Ten Teams are rarely easy; and it gives the Gophers a 7 & 3 conference record halfway through the Big Ten season. The daunting second half of the season will include trips to Lincoln and Madison, but if the Gophers could close 7 & 3, it would give us a 14 & 6 record in the toughest conference in the country. I’m not saying they couldn’t do better than that, but I’d be happy with 14 & 6.

NEXT UP:

Friday, Nov 1, 5:00 AT 1 & 9 Michigan State, BTN+ 

Sunday, Nov 3, AT 6 & 4 Michigan, BTN+  (I haven’t seen them this year. Anyone?)

I promised you that a healthy Gopher squad would beat Northwestern (and Ohio State at Ohio State on Sunday). We were not healthy, as Lydia Grote, who did not play in Set 3 at Penn State, was not dressed (as usual, no explanation). But we swept the Wildcats without her, 25-18, 20-20, 25-17. Julia Hanson picked up the slack, with 19 kills in the 3-set match. Halfway through Set 2, the Gophs led 14-11, so at that point we had scored 39 pts for the match, some on Northwestern errors; Hanson already had 13 kills, one-third of our pts. She hit .529 for the match. Hanson is also the best of our 3 Leftsides at serve-receive. The young woman who sat in front of me tonight played with Hanson in high school (she currently plays for Bethel) couldn’t believe that Hanson rode the bench these last two years. I didn’t have an answer.

Set 1: Hanson had 5 early kills sparking the Gophs to an 8-2 lead, which soon became 16-5, and we coasted from there. Set 2: The Wildcats best set, it was tied 10-10 before the Gophs slowly pulled away, 16-12, 21-15, 25-20. Set 3: Up 8-3 and 15-4, the Gophs subbed in Schnickels at Opposite and Engeman at  Middle. The Wildcats pulled to within 22-17, but then Hanson rotated to front-row and put the match away.

Lauren Crowl, playing most of the match for the Grote recorded 5 kills and 3 blocks, and she’s a decent passer (though not part of our serve-receive). BUT, we started each set in the rotation in which Shaffmaster was front-left. Anyone familiar with a 5-1 system will immediately recognise how unusual this is, and what it says – that Coach Cook was not thrilled to have Crowl in the line-up. Crowl pounds the ball – but with limited success. I’ve been thinking that her swings are slow and overly deliberate, making her easy to dig. The aforementioned young woman in row 13 had a different theory; she thinks Crowl is afraid of getting blocked, making her easy to dig.

One of the match’s downside was our 9 service errors, 3 each by Hanson and Thibault – vs 3 aces, none by Hanson and Thibault. Hanson obviously made up for it in other ways, but Thibault was eventually replaced by Gray. On the upside, Wooker had 2 back-row kills tonight – I think that’s a career record; maybe she’s healthy?

NEXT UP: At Ohio State, noon Sunday, BTN+. The Buckeyes are 1 & 8 in the Big Ten, and they were swept by Purdue this evening (we lost to Purdue in 5). However, their loss was at Purdue (ours was at the Pav), and 2 of their 3 sets were 2-pointers. They have two excellent Leftside Hitters; their Middles didn’t do much, but partly because the Boilermakers kept the Buckeyes out-of-system most of the match. We’ll need to serve aggressively, and do so much better than we did tonight. And we need Grote back in the lineup.

Swept in 3, 16-25, 10-25, 14-25, our Gophers drop to 12 & 6, 5 & 3 in the conference. I don’t think it’s making excuses to mention, before I dig into our weaknesses, that Penn State is really good.  The Nittany Lions are 18 & 1, 10 & 0 at home, and ranked #3 in the country. I wasn’t overly impressed with their Middles, but their Setter, Libero and both Leftside Hitters are all terrific. Time & time again, the Gophers crushed the ball – only for Penn State to dig, set, and crush it right back at us. And despite this, the Gophs were within a point at 16-17 in both Set 1 & Set 2, before the roof fell in.

WEAKNESSES: 

1. The Gopher Middles, Awoleye, Minatee, and Engeman for Minatee in Set 3, had zero kills for the match – on 18 swings. Awoleye did get 8 blocks, 5 in Set 1, to keep us competitive (for ⅔ of the set). Minatee played two sets, recording zero kills (she was credited for 1 block, but I don’t think she even touched it).  Engeman replaced Minatee in Set 3* and was equally ineffective.
2. Wooker has not played like Wooker all season, and I don’t think she has been healthy all season, presumably a lower-back problem. She played the first ⅔ of Set 1, earning 3 kills (1 a dink) and a hitting % of .000, before reinjuring, and being replaced by Acevedo. Acevedo earned 5 kills and a hitting % of .000 in 2 & ⅓ sets (so roughly the same as Wooker) but Acevedo is weak on serve-receive, and it hurt us. [Think for a moment of a comparison between the Freshman Acevedo, the Junior Wooker, and 5th-yr grad-student Jenna Wenaas, now playing for Texas. I could argue that all 3 are roughly comparable as hitters. But VB teams typically depend on their Leftsides to receive serve. Wenaas was/is terrific, Wooker is adequate, and Acevedo less than adequate. She is a freshman – might get better.]
3. Grote was decent through 2 sets, 5 kills, .059, with 3 blocks, but did not play in Set 3, replaced by Crowl, essentially taking away any hope I had for a Gopher comeback.
4. By Set 3, it was Shaffmaster & Palabiyik playing their hearts out, plus Awoleye blocking and Hanson hitting (11 kills, .345), playing the deep and balanced Nittany Lions without Wooker, Minatee and Grote. [I know Wooker was injured. I don’t know why Minatee and Grote didn’t play Set 3. I hope it wasn’t because we gave up.]

NEXT UP:

• Wednesday, 8:00 at the Pav, vs Northwestern (tickets available, apparently), BTN. 
• Sunday, Noon, AT Ohio State, BTN+

I am confident that a healthy Gopher team will win both of these matches to run our record to 7 & 3 halfway through the Big Ten Season.

The Vikings also lost today (though much closer); the Lynx better save my Day.