Author: jktrpp

Our Gophers lost at Rutgers last year (if I remember correctly, Shaffmaster was injured?), but they weren’t fooling around tonight, Gophs sweep, 25-13, 25-22, 25-17. Rutgers has yet to win a conference match. But it’s a tough league, they’re not terrible, and they played the Gophs even for long stretches.

Set 1: Gophers 5-5, 10-6, 16-9, & 25-13. Then Grote hitting and serving, and Shaffmaster doing everything right, to take over the set.

Set 2: After 4-4, 7-7, & 10-10, the Scarlet Knights committed 3 consecutive service errors, allowing the Gophs a little separation at 18-12. But the Scarlet Knights, playing their best V-ball of the match, came back to pull within 21-20. At 23-22, the Gophs got a side-out and Wooker, on her only serve of the evening (Acevedo has been serving for Wooker, but we may have been out of substitutions), got set-point.

Set 3: Surprisingly confident following a tight set-2, the Gophers played a lot of their bench, McGhie, Ng, Crowl and Schnickels in a 6-2, and Engeman in for Minatee. (Resting the starters for Penn State?) But it didn’t hurt us, 4-0, 10-3, 16-5, & 25-17.

Big Match Sunday at Penn State. (Again BTN+? I don’t get it.)

Maryland won Set 1 last week at #3 Penn State, and only lost Set 3 by 2 pts — but they were no more challenging tonight at the Pav, Gophers 25-21, 25-15, 25-18, than last night’s Hoosiers. Coach Cook felt so confident after burying the Terrapins in Set 2, that he played our #3 Middle Kali Engeman in place of Minatee in Set 3. It made me nervous when Engeman made a couple of mistakes and we were tied 13-13, but Cook stayed with Engeman and she redeemed herself with a couple of blocks.

Grote and Hanson had 12 kills apiece, 2 each from the back-row, and Awoleye had a ton of blocks. The Official Gopher Website Headline touts Awoleye with a Pavillion-record 14 blocks – but I had her with 9. Why the difference? When we put up a double-block, and it succeeds, the official stats give both players credit for a block. But using this system, they gave Grote 7, blocks, Hanson 5, and Wooker, Shaffmaster & Engeman 3 apiece and Minatee 1. That’s 36 blocks in 3 sets; what an incredible performance! Except we only had 19 blocks (still a good night). By either measure, Awoleye dominated the Terrapins.

Wooker again played the entire match (except that Acevedo serves for her). Her hitting totals were modest, 6 kills, but she also passed well. I had Wooker with 3 ”poor-receives” (zero official errors) , but she is clearly our second best receiver (after Palabiyik), so great to have Wooker back.

Speaking of  having Wooker back, the Gophers stunk last week at Southern Cal, but we weren’t even close to healthy. When healthy, which we may be now, if Wooker is fully healthy, this squad beat Texas on a neutral court, beat Wisconsin at the Pav, and never lost a set (we weren’t healthy in our 5-set win at UCLA either) against 8 mediocre teams, along with losing four 5-setters to ranked teams. Not bad at all. (Important to stay healthy!)

NEXT UP:

Friday, Oct. 16, 6:00, at Rutgers, BTN+

Sunday, Oct. 20, at #3 Penn State, BTN+

Even on the road, we should sweep this weak Rutgers squad. Winning at State College won’t be easy, but Maryland came within a few points of the Nittany Lions. Right now, we’re 11 & 5 overall, 4 & 2 in the Big Ten; the odds are, that by the end of next weekend, we’ll be 12 & 6, and 5 & 3. But I think our chances of coming away 13 & 5 are better than our chances of coming  away 11 & 7. (Odd, I think, that this top-15 matchup won’t be broadcast, at least on BTN.)

With the starting lineup back on the court (no Crowl, Acevedo only serving), the Gophers swept the Hoosiers, 25-18, 25-19, 25-19. I couldn’t tell during warmups if Wooker was going to play or not, but she started the match. She looked a bit tentative at first, or maybe just rusty, and with the Gophs up narrowly, at 19-16, she did not yet have a kill, But then she had 3 convincing kills in a row, putting us up 22-16.

Grote led the Gophs with 13 kills and a 565%, but well-balanced past that; Minatee & Hanson with 8 apiece (2 of Hanson’s from the back row), Wooker had 7 and Awoleye 6 – plus 7 blocks (the official Gophers stats gave Awoleye 10 blocks, but they count funny). But it’s Wooker’s return to the lineup that allows Grote to play Opposite, where she is comfortable, versus filling in for Wooker at Leftside.

And our “receive,” of Palabiyik, Wooker and either Thibault or Hanson was sooo much better than the past two weekends. I felt that the Hoosiers served aggressively all night, but we had minimal difficulty. Wooker had the only 2 errors, and that’s not bad as they were serving at her all night, And being “in system” on roughly 70% (I’m guessing) of our sideout attempts gave our Middles a chance to hit, which they did. Thibault looked better than last week also.

Speaking of Middle Hitting, last season and early this season, Minatee could only score on “slides,” and Awoleye only on “quicks.” (plus the random overpass) limiting the element of surprise in our attack. But tonight, Minatee had 3 quicks to go with her 5 slides, and 3 of Awoleye’s kills were slides. If we can keep this up against strong teams, we will have a much better chance of victory.

I also want to repeat something I wrote a couple weeks ago about Palabiyik’s improvement. Last year, we played the first half of the season without a D.S. (and it hurt us) because Coach Cook didn’t seem to trust Palabiyik. And pre-season, I was skeptical if she could handle the Libero position. But set after set, she “saves” multiple points with spectacular digs; I have become a big Palabiyik fan.

Indiana does not appear to be among the top teams in the Big Ten, and we should have swept them, as we did. Maryland, tomorrow’s night’s opponent (5:00, BTN) doesn’t look much better, but they did win a set at #3 Penn State.

In multiple respects:

• First 4-set loss, 23-25, 25-22, 11-25, 18-25 (no 3-set losses)
• Worst set (11-25 in Set 3) of the season.
• Worst composite score, Gophers 77, Trojans 97, of the season, and 
• Out-played in every aspect.

I warned Readers that USC was better than their #22 rating. And I warned Readers that the shorthanded Gophers might not have much left in the tank, playing back-to-back matches on the road. But I did not know how short handed. I said, in my account of Friday’s night match vs UCLA, that Hanson was essentially A.W.O.L.; what I did not know when writing that, was that Hanson was playing while ill. And likely not at 100% tonight either. And Acevedo, who came off the bench to help the Gophers take Set 5 from UCLA, contributed little against Southern Cal. I’ve written before about knowing an old VB coach who often said, “A volleyball team is only as good as their Leftside Hitters.” This weekend, with Wooker not dressed, Hanson under the weather, and Acevedo unable to pick up the slack, we were not very good.

Individually, Lydia Grote was the only consistent bright spot of the match, following last night’s 13-kill match vs UCLA with 16 against USC. After the disastrous Set-3, Coach Cook pulled Acevedo, moved Grote to Leftside, and plugged in Crowl at Opposite. I was dismissive of Crowls contribution in the victory over UCLA, but she was one of the few bright spots of the match, with 4 kills in 1 set, vs 2 kills in 3 sets for Acevedo. But for most of the match, Grote was our only weapon – and the Trojans knew it. My unofficial stats:

• Grote 16 kills,
• Hanson 9
• Shaffmaster and Crowl 4 a piece,
• Awoleye and Minatee 3 a piece. Not enough balance!

Acevedo has been especially weak in serve-receive, so Cook replaces her with our D.S., Thibault when she’s back row. But I think I overrated Thibault, she’s no better than Acevedo.. The other surprise was a rare appearance by Engemann in Set-3, who got 2 kills in a set and a half.  All in all, we were lucky to get a split in our L.A. weekend. 

NEXT UP are Indiana on Friday at 6:30, BTN+ and Maryland, Saturday, 5:00, BTN, both games at the Pav. The Gopher need to sweep these home matches. Be nice to have Wooker back.

25-21, 25-22, 25-27, 20-25, 15-10, in front of a Pauley Pavillion crowd of about 100 people, half of them Grote’s relatives. With Wooker still not dressed, and having lost faith in Acevedo (her passing, presumably, not her serving or hitting), Coach Cook played Grote at Left-side, and Crowl at Opposite. 

Sets 1 & 2: Not much offense from any of our pins. (I like Lauren Crowl, but), Crowl is rarely productive, Grote is much less productive from Left-side, and Hanson might as well been riding the bench with Acevedo. But with help from Minatee’s slides, and strong blocking from Awoleye, Shaffmaster was able to will the Gophers to narrow victories. I think she had 5 kills, 2 blocks and two aces in these first 2 sets, both Aces while bringing us back from a 3-9 deficit to 13-13 in Set 2.

Set 3: We played the Bruins even – except for terrible serve-receiving. Crowl was especially in-effective en route to a 16-21 deficit. Crowl had a couple of kills in a mini-comeback, but too little too late.

Set 4: Desperate, Cook went back to Acevedo, Crowl to the bench. Acevedo didn’t do much, and he even tried Schnickels, also a non-factor. But at least we got, more production from Grote, back at her more normal Right-side position. As even as the 2 pt margin suggests, from down 15-17, there were 13 consecutive side-outs; we earned a point on our serve to tie it at 23-23, but then at 25-25, the Bruins got the side-out and stole a point for the win.

Set 5: The Bruins were led all evening by their big Middle, Dotson. But at 6-6, she rotated out and after a side-out, McGhie came in to serve for the Gophs and ran 5 pts – nothing fancy, just putting the ball in play. Acevedo got a couple of kills. The Bruins scraped back to 13-10 and got Dotson back on the court, but then made two unforced errors to give the match away. It was their 2nd 5-setter of the season, vs 7 for the Gophs. An ugly win, but we’ll take it. (The Lynx won too.)

It was Midnight, here, by the time the match ended, and our gals internal clocks are on Central time; hard to imagine we’ll have much left in the tank tomorrow night vs the underrated Trojans.

Our Gophers, now elevated to #12 (seems odd?) after last weekend’s victory over #7 Wisconsin and loss to #10 Purdue. This weekend, we get unranked UCLA and #22 Southern Cal. Should be an easier weekend, right? Probably not. For one thing, we were at the Pav for both matches last week, but we’ll be in L.A. this weekend; our only true road win this season was at Wis GB. Secondly, Southern Cal seems way underrated; the Trojans are 9 & 3; their only losses to #1 Pitt, #2 Nebraska, and #6 Creighton. And the Bruins are probably better than their 7-4 record suggests. Both lost at Lincoln and beat the Buckeyes at home. I had a chance to see a little of both last week, UCLA at Nebraska, and Southern Cal hosting Ohio State.

UCLA,, Friday, 9:00 p.m, BTN+: The Bruins lost to Taylor Landfair’s Huskers (yes, after riding the bench during the non-conference schedule, Landfair appears to now be one of Nebraska’s starting Leftsides), but they didn’t go down easy,  22-25, 10-25, 25-23, 22-25. The Bruins resemble the Gophers in that they have strong “pins,” but less strong Middles. We might have an advantage at Setter and Libero.

Southern Cal, Saturday, 10:00 p.m, BTN: The Trojans were less competitive in Lincoln than the Bruins, losing in straight  sets, but their powerful serving was the difference in their close )19-25, 25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 15-13 win over Ohio State. The Trojans had only 8 aces, but they had the Buckeyes out-of-system for most of the match. And serve-receive is not the Gophers’ strong suit. 

Purdue, 24-26, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 10-15.

Two matches into the Big 10 season, the Gophers are 1 & 1, 8 & 4 overall. Five of the Gopher opponents (St. Thomas, Long Island, Green Bay, UND and Chicago State) were teams we were supposed to beat, and we swept each in straight sets. We also swept SE Conference Auburn, currently the #27 ranked team in the country. The other 6 matches went 5 sets (oddly, the Gophs have not played a 4-set match in 12 outings), losing to #3 Stanford (by 2 pts), beating #8 Texas (by 8), losing to #19 Baylor (by 2), losing to #22 TCU (by 2), beating #7 Wisconsin (by 2), and tonight, losing to #10 Purdue (by 5). The conclusion I draw is that while unbeaten Pitt and 10 & 1 Nebraska might be a cut above the rest, there is a ton of parity from #3 to at least #26 (and maybe beyond), which includes another 7 Big 10 teams besides Nebraska.

Tonight’s match itself was an example of this parity. Purdue’s leading hitters, Colvin and Hudson, posted 19 & 18 kills, respectively, vs Hanson and Grote with 19 and 17. We had 10 block-kills, they had 9. Both teams were great at getting partial blocks and amazing digs to keep rallies going when hitters crushed the ball. Long volleys, with the ball crossing the net a dozen times or more, were the norm rather than the exception.

The upshot is that at least half of the Gophers (10 of 20) Big 10 matches will be decided by a lucky bounce here, a  questionable call there, or an unforced error.  There was a call in tonight’s Set 1 (which cost us the Set) that those of us in Section 110 didn’t agree with. But the real story was unforced errors, especially in the Gophers’ serve-receive. I don’t think of Wooker as a great serve-receiver, so I was surprised, when Acevedo broke into the line-up, that Wooker would sub-in to handle serve-receive when Acevedo was hitting effectively. Could Acevedo be worse? Apparently yes.

Through 3 sets, with Wooker still injured, Acevedo was the Gophers leading hitter, but the Boilermakers were targeting her in serve-receive, and getting easy point after easy point. When Coach Cook tried to protect Acevedo by going to a two-player receive, either Palabiyik and Thibault, or Palabiyik and Hanson. Thibault broke down. The Gophers held their own with Purdue in hitting, blocking and digging, but coughed up an astonishing 17 Boilermakers aces, including 3 in the deciding Set 5. (The raw stats suggest that the Boilermakers slightly out-hit the Gophs, but only because we were playing out-of-system all night.) Down 2 sets to 1, going into Set 4, Coach Cook benched Acevedo entirely, moving Grote to Leftside and playing Crowl at Opposite, and it worked — at least in Set 4. I’m not a huge Crowl fan, but she had 2 kills in 5 swings and served well. I should give Purdue credit, they found our weakness and exploited it.

NEXT UP:

• Friday, Oct 4, 9:00 p.m., @ UCLA, on BTN+
• Saturday, Oct 5, 10:00 p.m., @ Southern Cal, on BTN

CLARIFICATION: I think I should clarify my comments (in my previous post) about the Gophers having limited depth at Setter. What I meant was that if Shaffmaster were to experience a minor injury causing her to miss part of a match, or even an entire weekend, or if she were to be injured in late November or December, I presume that our option would be to go to a 6-2, with McGhie and Ng doing the setting, and Crowl playing the other Opposite. We might be able to beat a “second-division” Big 10 team with this lineup, but we would definitely be weaker.

If, on the other hand, Shaffmaster were to experience a major injury, causing her to miss half or more of the season, I assume that Stella Swenson would step in as our 5-1 setter, sacrificing her red-shirt status. (I don’t know exactly what # of sets she could play and retain her status.) Stella does not have all the tools Shaffmaster has (like blocking and attacking), and she might need a week to adjust to the Big 10 level of play, but I have no doubt that Stella will eventually be a star.

Okay, “crush” might be an exaggeration, the Gophs won in 5 sets, 19-25, 25-15, 25-27, 25-15, 18-16 (composite score 112-98), but it is true that the Gophs were rated #18 pre-season and #16 entering conference play, and the Badgers were rated #3 pre-season and #7 entering conference play, so a great win.

Balance was the key to our offense. Grote led Gopher hitters with 17 kills (including 1 dink and 1 dig-overpass deep behind the astonished Sconnies), but Hanson had 15 (also including a dig-overpass deep behind the Sconnies), Acevedo had 12 (including 1 dink), Minatee had 10 (including 7 slides 1 quick and 2 overpass put-aways), Shaffmaster had 6 (really 7 except that the ref called her for a throw that looked good to me – Awoleye and a Badger player got away with much more flagrant throws), and Awoleye had 5 kills (2 slide and 3 quicks). By comparison, the Badgers were dependent, perhaps overly dependent, on the marvelous Sarah Franklin (21 kills, 38% of the Badger total).

As recently as Tuesday, I wrote that Minatee was adequate and Awoleye less than adequate. I certainly expected the Badger Middle-Trio of Carter Booth, Devyn Robinson and CC Crawford to dominate Minatee and Awoleye. Boy was I wrong! Undersized Minatee and Awoleye combined for 16 kills and a .382 hitting percentage, whereas Booth, Robinson and Crawford produced only 5 kills and a hitting percentage of 000. (They had hitting errors to match their 5 kills.) Middles vs Middles was a beat-down.

But I was right about Shaffmaster and Palabiyik. Franklin was probably the best player of the match, but Grote, Shaffmaster and Palabiyik were 2, 3, & 4 (not necessarily in that order), completely out-playing their Badger counter-parts. (Last year and early this year, Shaffmaster would nearly kill herself to reach a 2nd-touch rather than letting Palabiyik handle a 2nd-touch; but I noticed during the matches in Green Bay, and again tonight, that Shaffmaster is now very comfortable letting Palabiyik handle a 2nd-touch – and justifiably so.) 

Plus our serving was outstanding, a key factor in the upset victory and definitely a reversal from some previous matches. If you had told me, before the match, that the Gophs would have 6 aces and 8 errors, I would have been very happy with those numbers. But we had 8 aces and 6 service errors. 

You probably noticed Acevedo’s contribution, and no reference to Wooker. Wooker is injured (Gopher Policy, as always, is “no-comment.”) Wooker was dressed, warmed up as a serve-receiver, and played back-row for Acevedo in Set 1, but not very well, and not at all after that. Acevedo played front-row and served, and was then relieved by our D.S., Thibault. Grote, who is usually relieved by Thibault after losing her serve, played all 6 rotations beginning with Set 2. I am not remotely confident about our depth at Setter or Middle, and uncertain about our depth at Libero; the Gophers are very fortunate that their one injury so far is at Leftside, where Acevedo filled in admirably.

This match was sold out, especially the student sections, I think they turned away more students than they let in. This was a 5-set match starting at 8:00, so it is well past my bedtime (and no longer Wednesday) as I finish this, but I don’t mind because I AM PUMPED!

NEXT UP: #10 ranked Purdue, Saturday, 5:30, at the Pav (BTN). Purdue is tough, but so are these Gophers.

I should probably say things “I’ve “learned, happy to post readers’ thoughts on this. 

From a distance, no big surprises. Our initial national ranking was #18, which I felt was about right. I expected us to lose to Stanford & Texas, take 2 of 3 from Baylor, TCU & Auburn, and beat St. Thomas, Long Island, Green Bay, N Dakota & Chicago State, so 7 & 3. We beat Texas, lost to Baylor & TCU, and the rest as expected, so 7 & 3, andbumped up slightly to #16. But there were some encouraging elements on our road to 7 & 3:

• We beat Texas, ranked #1 at the time, on a neutral court – a “signature win.”
• All 3 of our losses were in 5 sets, and all 3 of our Set 5 losses by 2 pts – we weren’t “over-matched,” even vs #3 Stanford. 
• 6 of our 7 wins, including #27 Auburn, and at Green Bay, were in straight sets; we’re actually 27 & 11 in sets played, vs a respectable mix of strong & weak opponents. And
• Our digging is much improved. This year’s squad doesn’t have as much size and power at the net as some previous teams, but this could turn out to be the best digging team in Gopher history.

Individually, there have been some very pleasant surprises:

• Leftside Julia Hanson, with 130 kills (including several from the back-row), 3.71 kills/set, a .241 kill percentage, and the only one on the team delivering “shock & awe” kills, has played great. This probably should not have been a surprise, given that she had been the Strib’s High School Player of the Year – but then again, she spent her Freshman and Sophomore seasons on the bench, behind Wooker and Taylor Landfair. (Taylor who?) Hanson is part of our serve-receive, but not targeted by our opponents (8 official errors in 89 receives, or .910 success).
• Setter-Plus Melani Shaffmaster has played great. I say “Setter-Plus,” because in addition to her 314 assists, she has 125 digs and 33 kills (almost 1 per set). Not showing up in the official Gopher stats are her frequent “saves at the net” on errant Gopher digs. I’ve previously apologized for being surprised by Shaffmaster. (What was I thinking?) She’s not the quickest setter around, and therefore ends up bump-setting too much, but her bump-setting is good, and her offense has been terrific. She also leads the team with 13 Aces (vs 15 errors, I’ll take it), and seems comfortable as the Team’s Leader.
• Libero Zeynep Palabiyik has played great. A Freshman last year, Palabiyik, who should have been, and eventually became our D.S., spent half of last season on the bench while the Gophers played without a D.S., then looked shaky at first, but got better. I was uncertain, heading into the season, if Palabiyik could handle Libero – but my doubts are gone. She struggles a bit with hard-hit floater-serves right at her (16 official errors in 236 receives, or .932 success), but she is fearless and crazy quick, covering more ground than Kylie Murr or CC McGraw did.
• Middle Calissa Minatee has played well. A Freshman last year, Minatee sat on the bench behind a pair of mediocre Middles, and I spent the off-season howling about our need to find one in the Portal. Turns out, Minatee, with 66 kills (almost all on “slides,” rarely on “quicks”) looks good; better, definitely than either of our other Middles.  
• Opposite Lydia Grote, with 87 kills and a .249 percentage, has played great too. But she was great last year, so not surprising.

Less pleasant:

• Leftside McKenna Wucherer (The Wooker), with 72 kills and a .173 percentage, has been okay, but I was expecting her to be better than okay. She hasn’t been attacking the ball as aggressively, she’s not serving at all, lately, and this past weekend she was on the bench with a corset-type wrap around her waist – so obviously not 100% healthy. Maybe she hasn’t been all season. But a healthy Wooker can be an important offensive weapon; we need her healthy and in the lineup.
• Red-shirt Freshman Alex Acevedo has, with Wooker out, been playing the other Leftside (in addition to Hanson), and also looks okay, with 31 skills and a .194 percentage. As a Freshman-transfer, she is still feeling her way, and I expect her to get better. But right now, I’d rather see Hanson and a healthy Wooker. Encouraging however, is that Acevedo, with 11 aces and a .046 percentage, has been our strongest server.
• Back-up Opposites Lauren Crowl and Sydney Schnichels don’t get quality playing time behind Grote, so it’s unfair to expect too much. Fourth-year player Crowl gets more of it, but doesn’t produce much; she hits the ball hard, but (except vs Chicago State) rarely gets a kill. Schnichels is a red-shirt Freshman, injured for most of last season, but like Hanson, the #1 recruit in MN in her graduating class, so I was/am hoping she emerges as a factor before too long.
• D.S. Kate Thibault has been okay. Along with howling for a better Middle, I spent the off-season howling for another Libero/D.S., and when we got one in Sophomore Thibault, I speculated that she might compete with Palabiyik for the more important Libero role. So far, no.

Disappointing:

• Fifth-year (2nd with the Gophers) Middle Phoebe Awoleye has not played well at all, not even as well as last year. She rarely connected on “slides” last year, but she used to score “quicks.” This season, neither, at least so far. And
• Fifth-year Middle (Portal Transfer) Kali Engeman does not look like a D1 Middle.

Summing up: Strong digging, Strong Outside Hitting (especially if Wooker gets healthy), Competent setting and strong Leadership by Shaffmaster – one glaring weakness at Middle and not much of a bench. But the Gophers have demonstrated the ability to efficiently dispose of weaker teams, and play very tough against the best in the country. I think that a top-5 finish in the Big 10, and a Sweet 16 berth in the NCAAs are both realistic goals.  We host #7 Wisconsin tomorrow night, and # 10 Purdue on Saturday, so we’ll find out soon.

Since losing Set 5 (by 2 pts) to TCU two weeks ago, the Gophs have won 6 straight matches, each convincingly in 3 straight sets, including today’s victory over a scrappy Chicago State squad (led by 6-4 Argentinian Middle Juliette Sandez), 25-16, 25-15, 25-18. The total-composite score was almost identical to yesterday’s sweep of North Dakota, except that the Chi-State Cougars made the Gophers earn their points. By my count, 41 of the Gophers 75 points came on kills by Gopher hitters, vs roughly half that number vs NoDak. 

For the second straight day, Wooker was not dressed. Yesterday, I didn’t know why, but today I saw that Wooker was wearing a corset-type wrap around her waist. My experience suggests that a wrap like that indicates a lower-back injury. She may have been wearing this all season, but I hadn’t noticed it before. ANYONE? We need a healthy Wooker, let’s hope Coach Cook, with Wisconsin coming up on Wednesday, was not playing Wooker merely out of an abundance of caution.

For the 3 matches in Green Bay, (9 sets), Hanson led the Gophers with 24 kills, including multiple WOW-kills. Grote added 19, Minatee 12, Acevedo 11 and Awoleye 10.  Wisconsin Green Bay turned out the toughest opponent, but they lost today’s finale, in 5 sets, to St. Thomas. In retrospect, I probably would have enjoyed being in Milwaukee for the Stanford & Texas matches more than I enjoyed being in Green Bay for UWGB, UND and Chi-State, but that’s hindsight. And those early matches were televised, which not all of these matches were. It also gave me an opportunity to watch some of the Gopher reserves. Today, our # 3 Opposite Schnickels had a kill and a block, # 3 Middle Engeman had 2 kills and 2 blocks, but most impressive today was #2 Opposite Crowl, with 5 kills and a block.