If there was a Big Ten Tournament (I’m glad there’s not, unnecessary), this match, in Columbus Ohio, could have been for the BIG TEN Championship. But instead it was for the national NCAA Championship, with the Badgers finally winning the title, in a back & forth match, on their 4th trip to the Championship Match.
Heading into the NCAA Tournament, I posed the question, How good is the BIG TEN, really? My answer was, “Hard to say.” Watching BTN we are fed a steady diet of “The BIG TEN is the greatest.” But BTN is incentivized to boost their own ratings. We hear the same thing watching men’s basketball and hockey, where it isn’t true.
I thought Wisconsin was under-rated as the #4 seed, and not at all surprised that they won the title. But Nebraska? Nebraska finished 2nd in the BIG TEN, one game behind Wisconsin and one game ahead of Minnesota, Purdue, and Ohio State, but they looked terrible in their appearance at the PAV, and lost twice to Wisconsin during the regular season. I thought Purdue was the 2nd best team in the BIG TEN, (if not the best). Purdue not only gave Wisconsin two of their 3 defeats, but in mid-November won at Madison on Friday Night and at the PAV on Sat night (annually, the toughest road trip in Women’s D-1 volleyball).
But you have to hand it to Nebraska Coach John Cook. Year after year, the Huskers either under-perform during the regular season, or over-perform in the playoffs. If this happens once in a while, that’s a fluke; but when it happens year-after-year, that’s a coach getting his team to peak at the right time. I’ll bet a lot of coaches in a lot of sports would like to know Cook’s secret.
SET 1: Huskers were up early and held on to win, serving extremely aggressively – a strategy driven, perhaps, by the two teams high-level familiarity with each other. I’m not certain I understand the logic, but I don’t know what else it would be. And Nebraska’s aggressive serving was a major factor in neutralizing Rettke; Hilley couldn’t feed Rettke those perfect sets iwhen she had to chase the ball.
And the Badgers had their own surprises up their sleves. Just when we think we’re finally done with the 6-8 Roettke, the Badgers come up with a 6-9 freshman, Anna Smrek. I don’t recall Smrek even playing against the Gophs in early October, she was on the bench watching Soph Jade Demps play the opposite. She played some at the PAV in November, and in the Region Final last week, but didn’t have much impact in either match. But suddenly, in the National Semi-Final against Louisville, Demps sits, Smrek plays, and dominates, even more than Rettke! Then, in the Finals against Nebraska, the Badgers start using Demps exclusively as a back-row hitter (for Loberg?) and setting her more than anyone! (The Gophers hit back-row more than almost anyone; is that where the Badgers got the idea?) ESPN announcer Karch Kiraly called this “a chess move.”
I guess this is as good a time as any to complain about Kiraly. A volleyball match can include tactics and counter-tactics, so an occasional chess analogy is tolerable. But Kiraly used the analogy at least 6 times during the match, and as a former competitive chess player, I have to say the chess analogy is not that strong. (I was the tallest player in a couple of State H.S. Tournaments, and I don’t remember that being much of an advantage.) Kiraly is no Magnus Carlson.
SET 2: Huskers up early again, but the Badgers stormed back to win 31-29, after both teams had multiple set-point opportunities in the long-overtime set.
SET 3: Nebraska did not lead early, or ever (that I recall), but they did tie it up at 23-23 before the Badgers’ Devyn Robinson put away back-to-back kills.
SET 4: Close most of the way until the Huskers took a late lead, 21-17, and the Badgers’ attempted comeback was sabotaged by consecutive missed serves.
SET 5: And then the Huskers collapsed, spotting the Badgers to a 7-0 lead. It is hard enough to dig out of a 7-point deficit in a 25-point set, harder yet in a 15-point set. Nebraska fought their way to 12 points, but it was too little too late. Sidney Hilley, the best setter in the BIG TEN, started the early run with a play she made half-a-dozen times during the match: preventing an overpass with a spectacular one-handed set from directly above the net. And later, Hilley fed Roettke had Championship point,
COMING SOON: NEXT YEAR’S GOPHER PROSPECTS