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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.

Back in January, writing about the portal, I predicted that all 10 of our players eligible to return for ‘26 season would do so, and so far that prediction is holding up. And that, in addition to 3 incoming freshmen, we might pick up a strong player not intimidated by our already crowded roster. Perhaps one who has starred for a less successful team, or a European. And this also has come true.

We picked up 6-3 Middle Lucie Blažková from Washington State. A native of the Czech Republic, Blažková redshirted at WSU in 2023 before starting in every match during her freshman and sophomore seasons. She has 2 years of eligibility remaining.

As a freshman in 2024, Blažková’s 1.2 blocks per set (134 total) ranked third in the WCC and she was named to the WCC All-Freshman Team. Last year, while repeating her 1.2 blocks per set, she also set the WSU all-time single-season hitting percentage record with a .443 mark (9th-highest in the nation) on 280 kills. And she was named First Team All-WCC after being the WCC Player of the Week 3 times.

For now, Blažková (I might go with Lucie, easier to spell) gives us 4 Middles competing for 2 starting roles. Going to be interesting to see who gets them. I haven’t seen Blažková play, but for now I’d rank her #2 behind Jordan Taylor. Elena Hoecke was last year’s best high school player in MN and has a lot of upside, but she’s a freshman. And Calissa Minatee has proven to be an effective hitter, but she’s short (6-1) for a Middle and coming off an ACL injury.

Split? Yup, 25-27, 25-15, 25-12 & 19-25. I think they could have played a Set 5, but chose not to. If this was an in-season match against a Summit League Team, even the defending Summit League Tournament Champ and NCAA Tournament rep, a split would be disappointing. But this was an exhibition match – so a little less so.

Set 1: The Gophers played their best, healthy team: Stella at Setter, Gilk at Opposite, Wooker & Kinney at Leftside, Taylor & Hoecke at Middle and Garr at Libero & Thibeault at D.S. The Gophs struggled with serve-receive (especially Wooker, Kinney and Thibault) and lost a tight-all-the-way overtime set. 

Set 2: With Crosson hitting Leftside, Kinney at Opposite and Gilk sitting out, and Thibeault & Garr switching jerseys, the Gophs started 0-5, roared back to lead 24-10, and coasted to the win.

Set 3: Back to the “starting line-up” except with Crosson instead of Wooker, the Gophers crushed St. Thomas.

Set 4: Using Lee in a 6-2 and Olivia as part of their serve-receive, the Gophers were crushed.

The best possible spin on this is that once Palabiyik is healthy, Wooker & Kinney won’t have to be part of our serve-receive, and that we will never use Lee in a 6-2, or Olivia in serve-receive – if we’re trying to win. The flaw in that analysis is that I am unfamiliar with St. Thomas’s personnel – and I have no idea when they were playing their second-stringers.

NOTES:

• Wooker, Kinney and Gilk were all hitting with authority.
• Taylor blocked very well.
• Hoecke started okay and got better as the match went on.
• Crosson started poor and got better as the match went on.
• Crosson came with a reputation as a great passer, but she wasn’t tonight.

OTHER NOTES:

• A healthy Palabiyik will make this a much better team.
• When Acevedo and Minatee are healthy, they will have to compete for starting roles.
• Better timing between Stella and her Middles will greatly improve our offense.
• We will sorely miss the back-row attack that Julia Hanson provided.

NEXT UP: Maybe an intra-squad or alumni match in late August? 

We, as in the Gophers, playing their first VB (after cancelling the past two weeks due to illness within the team) since early December, and we, as in GopherVBRocks, there to watch and report on it. For the record (or non-record given that these are Exhibition Matches), The Gophs swept South Dakota 2-0 and Northern Iowa 2-0. The Gophs dominated SoDak, but the sets versus UNI were super-tight, 30-28 and 25-22. (The Panthers were an NCAA second-round Tournament Team last December.) I thought there was going to be a mini-match against a  third team, but either I misunderstood, or the Gophs were being cautious on their first outing.

The VERY GOOD news was that The Wooker was back in action, playing hard and crushing the ball! The BAD news was that she went down twice due to collisions – and both times came up wincing and holding her lower-back – the same lower-back that caused her to miss the last season and a half. 

   > If Wooker is 100% when the real season starts in late August, she will be the Gophers best hitter and likely to lead them to the best season in the Coach Cook era; 

   > If Wooker is still nursing her back injury through the ‘26 season, this could become a “drama,” which while not Wooker’s fault, could burden the entire team; and

   > If Wooker ends up missing most of the season, the Gophers could still be good – but not as good as they would be with a healthy Wooker crushing the ball.

Given her troubling injury and the meaninglessness of today’s matches, should Wooker have even been playing? I think yes. She was surely involved in the decision, and if she’s not ready to play hard (which she did today) after 18 months, will she be ready to do so in 4 more? I’d like to know – but more importantly, Wooker and Coach Cook need to know.

Veterans Acevedo, Minatee and Palabiyik were present but not dressed – which makes sense and doesn’t concern me at all. All injured their knees (two ACLs and a meniscus) last September or October – and these are exhibition matches. Having broken my femur, lost both meniscuses (menisci?), and ruptured a quad-tendon, I get that knee injuries are serious. But their recoveries should be more predictable than Wooker’s back.

   > I fully expect Palabiyik to reclaim her spot as the Gopher’s starting Libero.

   > When the ‘26 season starts in late August, I think Minatee will be our “second” Middle, behind Taylor – but she will be challenged by Hoecke.

   > If Wooker can’t go, Acevedo will likely be one of our starting Leftsides. If Wooker (and Gilk) are healthy, Acevedo will have to fight for playing time.

All three incoming freshmen played, some more than others. 

   > With Minatee not dressed, Middle Elena Hoecke started and played full-time (well, she’s a Middle, so only front-row), and looked good. Not dominant exactly, but good for an incoming freshman. I expect her to challenge a healthy Minatee for playing time.

   > Leftside Makenna Crosson did not start but played a fair amount, even against UNI. She looked decent. I didn’t see enough today to make me think that she will challenge Kelley and Acevedo for our “second” Leftside behind Wooker this coming season, but when starters were injured last season, we saw freshmen take advantage of opportunity and grow into key roles, so who knows?

   > Libero Madi Craft played sparingly behind Garr and Thibault today – not enough for a fair evaluation. If Palabiyik, Garr and Thibault all stay healthy, Craft might be a candidate for a “red-shirt.”

Veterans Stella, Gilk, Kelley & Taylor all played great; I thought Gilk especially. Georgia and Olivia also played; Georgia as half of a 6-2 in both Set 2s, and Olivia as a designated server – giving both an opportunity to demonstrate their value to the team. 

IN OTHER NEWS: After two years of a 20-match Big Ten Schedule, which involved playing the other 17 teams once (and 3 of them twice, one of them a geographic rival, in our case Wisconsin), the Big Ten is switching to just the other 17 teams, once each – and then a BIG TEN TOURNAMENT. 

There is some argument about better preparing Big Ten Teams for the NCAAs, but I find the logic underwhelming. I assume it’s about money, but that’s confusing too. I find it hard to believe that ticket sales for a 5-day tournament in Indiana, even at jacked-up prices, will exceed the ticket sales for 27 (18 divided by 2, times 3) on-campus matches, 9 of them against hated rivals. It must be TV money.

NEXT UP: The Gophers will host St. Thomas at the Pav next Friday, 4/24, at 6:00. This will be your last chance to see the Gophs this Spring – and it’s FREE (I think).

CONGRATULATIONS to the Gopher Women’s Gymnastics for making the FINAL FOUR!

The Gophers have announced their 2026 spring schedule – loaded with 2025 NCAA Tournament teams, including a match-up with the Badgers!

Friday, April 3 at Iowa St. (Ames, Iowa, TBA)

Friday, April 10 vs. Wisconsin (UW Eau-Claire, 6:30 p.m.)

Saturday, April 18 at Northern Iowa Tournament* 

Friday, April 24 vs. St. Thomas (Maturi Pavilion, 6 p.m.) Free admission.

* The UNI event, at Cedar Falls, will be an all-day, 6-team “Tournament,” featuring abbreviated matches. Besides the Gophers and UNI, the field will include: Iowa, South Dakota State, South Dakota, and St. Thomas. My guess would be two, 3-team brackets, playing best 2 out of 3 matches, followed by the 1st place teams playing each other. and maybe the 2nd place teams playing each other? 

And I am happy to report that the updated Gopher roster includes every player eligible to return, so we haven’t lost anyone to the portal (yet), plus the 3 anticipated recruits, already in school. It also does not include any surprises – I still think we need an upgrade at back-up setter. And we don’t know how healthy those who were injured might be. But I’m pretty happy with what we’ve got.

Also happy to report that this blog is now a blog again, as the technical difficulties have been resolved (at least for now.) Email comments, questions or opinions to jktrpp@gmail.com, and I’ll post ’em.

I think the ‘26 Gophers will be better than the ‘25 Gophers. Other teams will be better also, but the Gophers will have even greater success. Whereas the ‘25 Gophs finished tied for sixth in the rugged BigTen, the ‘26 Gophs will finish Top-Three. And where the ‘25 Gophs earned a top-sixteen seed going into the NCAAs, the ‘26 Gophs will earn a top-eight with a solid chance to make the Final Four.

I’m going to assume that all 5 of our dynamic freshmen will be back to play their sophomore seasons – and why wouldn’t they be? It certainly appeared, from Section 110, that all 5 had a good experience, starting, getting better individually as the ‘25 season went on, jelling with each other and getting better as a team. Hard for me to imagine why any of them would be dissatisfied. And they’ll be better next year. Why? Because sophomores inevitably improve from their freshmen seasons. They’ll carry forward confidence in themselves, and confidence in each other. This core group is going to be terrific! Thibault should be back for her junior year and should be better also.

I am also going to assume that all 4 of the players who were injured this past season will be back and 100% healthy. Acevedo, Minatee and Palabiyik all suffered knee injuries early in the year. I don’t mean to make light of knee injuries, especially ACLs, but these are young women, who I assume have had and continue to receive first-class medical treatment. I expect all three to be 100% by August. Who knows what goes through a young woman’s mind as she sits on the bench nursing an injury and watching her “back-up” enjoy success? But Acevedo and Minatee will have their eyes on the vacancies in the starting lineups created by Hanson’s and Myer’s graduations, and I would expect Palabiyik to be confident about winning back her role as starting Libero. There is no obvious reason that all three wouldn’t be back.

Wooker injured her lower back in early September of 2024. She played off and on throughout the ‘24 season, but was never 100%. It does not appear that there was a surgical intervention during 2025, nor has there been any indication of one during the current off-season. Backs are trickier than knees; maybe Wooker will be 100% by this coming August, or maybe she’ll never play again. If she is 100%, she will be a star, likely the best player on the ‘26 team. If she can’t play, replacing Julia Hanson will be a major challenge for the ‘26 Gophers.

And the Gophers have a top-15 ranked class of freshmen coming in. This group includes:

• 6-3 Middle Elena Hoecke (Lino Lakes/Centennial H.S.) Hoecke is the No. 1 ranked Class of ’26 recruit in Minnesota, the 2025 Baden Ms. Minnesota Volleyball,  the 2025 StarTribune Player of the Year, and a 2025 Under Armour All-American. I haven’t seen her play, but I’m guessing she’s pretty good. 
• 6-3 Outside Hitter Makenna Crosson (San Jose, Cal) Crosson is ranked nationally as the #25 or #35 (different rating services) Class of ’26 recruit, a MaxPreps All-American as a sophomore in 2023 and on the MaxPreps Player of the Year Watch List in 2025 (she missed most of her junior season due to injury), the WCAL Player of the Year, and is considered excellent in serve-receive. (This will give us 3 Makennas on a 15(?) player roster.)
• Libero Madi Kraft (Eagan, MN) Kraft was a two-time Minnesota Class AAAA All-State team selection, a 2025 Baden Ms. Minnesota Volleyball Finalist, the #8 ranked Class of ’26 recruit in Minnesota (the second ranked libero), and last year helped her Northern Lights 17U team win a Junior National Tournament in Dallas.

All 3 are expected to be enrolled at the U of M in January and available for the Spring Season.

To sum up, this means 6 returning starters, 4 previous starters returning from injuries, and 3 incoming freshmen, 13 total potentially high-level players competing for 8 starting roles.

And then there’s the Out-Portal. As I have written above, I can’t imagine why any of the 6 individual returning starters would want to enter the portal, nor can I imagine why any of the 4 players due to return from injury would enter the portal, nor, to my knowledge, have any entered the portal so far. Nor do I expect any of the 3 recruits who recently signed the paperwork to play for the Gophers, and are expected to start classes at the U any day now, to change their minds. 

Sure, there’s money on the table now, but despite what you hear, the teams we are competing with all have roughly the same amount of money, and divide it up roughly the same way, i.e., the Lion’s Share for football and the Lion’s Share after football for men’s basketball, leaving other sports including women’s basketball, hockey, volleyball, baseball, etc. with a few hundred K for their entire roster. Hard to imagine that an otherwise satisfied volleyballer getting $15K from the Gophers would jump to a different school for $20K. 

That said, I can’t know what goes on in the mind of an 18, 19, 20 year old young woman, so I can’t say for certain that we won’t lose anyone. But I wouldn’t bet on any one of them leaving. My guess is that all 13 described above will be wearing Maroon and Gold this coming August.

Perhaps more interestingly, there’s the In-Portal. (And maybe a late, fourth, incoming freshman recruit? Perhaps someone from another country?) 

The first question regarding the In-Portal is why would a team with 13 talented players, and room for only 8 or 9 to play, even be looking at the In-Portal? The answer is to look at this past and previous year’s Final Four Teams – most of which were strong to start with, and then brought in All-American caliber players to become even stronger – in some cases pushing talented existing players to the bench. In a sense, this seems not a good idea in terms of team-chemistry – but try telling that to Nebraska, Wisconsin or Kentucky, who make Final Fours playing In-Portal transfers.

The second question is why an All-American caliber player would transfer to the Gophers when Nebraska, Texas A & M or Kentucky is on the other line? Given again that I can’t know what goes on in the mind of a young woman, I can’t say for certain, but probably not until we’ve advanced beyond the Sweet Sixteen. Unless there would be some sort of personal connection which isn’t impossible.

A more likely possibility would be a strong player – but not an All-American that would interest Nebraska. Perhaps one who has starred for an unrated team (I’m thinking of a Lydia Grote who had starred at Cal-Berkley) and dreams of playing at a higher level before she runs out of eligibility. Someone not intimidated by an already crowded roster. Reader R.A. called my attention to Kaia Castle, a 6-4 Middle from Montrose MN, who entered the Portal after a respectable red-shirt freshman season at Ohio State. Castle has already signed with Texas A & M, but  someone like Castle would seem gettable, and wouldn’t hurt.

And then there’s need. Our pressing need is for a back-up setter. Georgia Lee was our back-up setter in ‘25, has another year of eligibility and could well be back. Lee also served this past season as a designated server, and was adequate in that role. But on those brief occasions in which she needed to run our offense – she was not, in my opinion, an adequate back-up. (I have no doubt Lee is a fine young woman, but that’s a different conversation.) We need someone who could step in and run our offense if, heaven forbid, Stella is unavailable, even temporarily.

Back-up Setters are like back-up quarterbacks and back-up goalies, forgettable when you don’t need them – then suddenly the most important player on the team when you do. And it is difficult to recruit strong back-up Setters because strong Setters don’t want to be back-ups. But we need to find one. Planning for a season-accomplishment better than ‘25 without a capable back-up Setter would be like the Vikings planning to reach the Super Bowl without a back-up quarterback.

2026 PREVIEW – Part 2

I haven’t heard anything about additions or subtractions from the 2026 roster from what I understood it to be a couple of weeks ago. If any readers have heard anything, please let me know. For now, here is how I think the line-up will shake out:

SETTER: The ‘26 Gophers will almost certainly play a “5-1,” meaning one Setter. And we have a very good one in Stella Swenson. I think Stella, who will be better in ‘26 than she was in ‘25, is good enough to lead us to a Top-Three in the BigTen, and  top-eight seed. 

> But Stella is human, and therefore vulnerable to injury or illness, so we need a back-up Setter. We do not, in my opinion, currently have a back-up Setter capable of covering tips or running our offense. I suppose it is possible that Georgia Lee will be dramatically better this coming season than she was last season – but her biggest deficit is that she is slow. I find it hard to imagine that her quickness will improve dramatically over the off-season. 

> With expectations otherwise high, it strikes me as foolish to go into the coming season without a capable back-up Setter, and I hope this problem can be resolved by August.

LIBERO: In recent years, the Gophers have played a Libero-plus-one-Defensive Specialist system, but the trend among top teams is toward a Libero-plus-two- Defensive Specialists system, and I think that was the plan in ‘25 until Palabiyik was injured, eliminating that option. I think we will play a Libero-plus-two-Defensive Specialists system in ‘26, meaning that we will play 3 Liberos.

> With Palabiyik healthy, and I expect that she will be by August, and the addition of incoming freshman Madi Kraft, we should have 4 Liberos available.

> I expect that a healthy Palabiyik will reclaim the off-colored jersey, and that Garr and Thibault will both play regularly as Defensive Specialists. If everyone stays healthy, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the freshman Kraft red-shirt.

OPPOSITE: Given only one Setter, we’ll play only one Opposite, and I think Gilk will be our every-set Opposite. Even playing two D.S.s, we will still need one Outside Hitter to play 6 rotations and participate in our serve-receive – and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gilk get this job also. 

> Reader R.A., focusing on her late-season struggles, has a much lower assessment of Gilk than I do, but I like her up-side. 

> Kinney would be the obvious back-up at Opposite if something happens to Gilk, even if Kinney has secured a starting role at Leftside. 

> And maybe the freshman McKenna Crosson would be a darkhorse candidate who emerges to win the 6-rotation role.

MIDDLES: We will play 2 Middles; we have 3. I expect that the starters, for the first match of the season next August, will be Taylor and Minatee, with incoming freshman Elena Hoecke waiting for her opportunity. 

> Taylor is the tallest player on the team, one of the most athletic, and has the potential to dominate a match defensively. Her up-side is enormous. Offensively, Taylor wasn’t there yet this past season, especially on the slides. Her coordination with Stella needs to improve dramatically – and I think it will.

> Minatee produced surprising offensive effectiveness during her freshman season in 2024, and again early in 2025 – before her injury. She should recover from her torn meniscus and be effective offensively again in 2026. But she is undersized at Middle, which limits her defensive effectiveness. 

> I haven’t yet seen Hoecke play. (Looking forward to the Spring exhibition                              season.) But she was the best high school player in MN this past fall, and I               expect that Hoecke will push Taylor and Minatee for playing time. If Hoecke does crack the line-up, in place of Taylor or Minatee, the choice could be based on whether Coach Cook values Taylor’s defense or Minatee’s offense. 

LEFTSIDES: We will play 2 Leftsides. Assuming that Wooker and Acevedo are healthy, we’ll have 4, including Kinney and incoming freshman Elena Hoecke competing for playing time. 

> Wooker is the biggest question mark on this roster. She played so well during the 2023 season, that Wooker was named First Team Pre-season All Big Ten last August, despite struggling with her back during the 2024 season. If she is completely healthy and can regain her 2023 skills, Wooker  could easily be the Gophers best player – and elevate this team to a legitimate Final Four Contender. I’m pulling for her. But backs are tricky and it is also possible that Wooker will never play again. 

> Kinney was a highly regarded recruit. She started slow, especially when given limited opportunity. But thrust into the starting line-up when Wooker and Acevedo were injured, Kinney got better and better, matching Hanson kill for kill in several matches. Kinney isn’t physically over-powering, at least not yet, an off-season in the weight room might make a difference. But she has a full range of attack angles and attack velocities – the best variety of weapons the Gophers have seen in recent years.

> This past season, before she blew her ACL, Acevedo was our #2 Leftside, behind Hanson. Acevedo serves well and, before her injury, she was playing significantly better than she had been during her freshman season in ‘24. Her knee could be 100% by August, and I assume that Acevedo expects to regain her starting role. I don’t want her anywhere near our serve-receive, but if we play a Libero-plus-two- Defensive Specialists, she wouldn’t need to.

> Crosson is another player I haven’t seen and am looking forward to seeing during the Spring exhibition season. She missed her ‘24 season due to an injury, but played well this past season and comes in highly regarded. Wooker, Kinney and Acevedo (and Gilk) are all 6-1, but Crosson is taller at 6-3, and is considered an excellent passer.

> I’d love to see Wooker back in the line-up. If she is not healthy, the season- opening starters are likely to be Kinney and Acevedo. Maybe Crosson will push her way into the line-up by mid-season – hopefully based on her talent, not in response to injuries.

Anyway, I am very excited about the potential of this squad – I don’t think a Final Four appearance is out of the question.

In 4 sets, 25-19, 25-19, 18-25, 25-19.  At Indiana, making this the Gophers second straight road win! I feel like the Gophs might be slightly overrated, but if we’re overrated at #20, the Hoosiers are definitely overrated at #23. The Hoosiers did have a great Oct 3,4 weekend, defeating UCLA and So. Cal on their West Coast road trip. This was our first win over a rated team, but you have to wonder how long the Indiana Team we played tonight will remain top-25? 

Set 1: Kinney was on fire, 7 kills without a hitting error, and Hanson had a pair of nice kills toward the end of the set.                                                                                                                                               Set 2: More Hanson and a lot of Gilk; Gilk spurring the Gophs to their first significant lead halfway through the set. But the big Set 2 news was 4 aces by Stella, 3 of them consecutive.  We had more Aces than blocks in set 4.                                                                                   Set 3: Not sure if it was complacency or what, but our serve-receive suddenly went bad (especially Hanson). The lone bright spot was Myers generating offense late to give the Gophs momentum into set 4.                                                                                                                                      Set 4: Stella did a great job of distributing the ball all match, but especially in Set 4. Hanson, Gilk and Kinney were all effective with strong blocking by Myers and Taylor. 

Hanson led the way with 17 kills and a very impressive .457. The Gophs as a team hit .412; you won’t lose many matches hitting .400 or higher. A lot of the credit goes to our serve-receive; except for Set 3, we were making decent first passes – which makes Stella’s job much easier. Stella also kept the Hoosier defense off balance by not always making the obvious set. Stella’s 5 aces didn’t hurt either

Note: the up-ref was calling throws, 2 on the Gophs and at least 1 on Indiana, on hits that other Big Ten refs let go. 

NEXT UP: A Short trip to West Lafayette for a Sunday at Noon match (BTN+) against a very strong Purdue squad, ranked #11. (And seemingly not-overrated.) An interesting match for Myers who transferred from Purdue – could she get hot against her former team? I know they’ll expect her “slide,” and try to take it away. I said last week that I’d be happy with a weekend split, and I’m happy – but I could be really happy with a win at Purdue – the signature win the Gophs are still looking for.

I went into the weekend feeling that a split on this Northwest road trip would be good, but after last night’s embarrassing loss to the Ducks, I wasn’t feeling very optimistic. But the Gophs flipped the switch and beat the Huskies in four, 14-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25 12. Were the Gophers jet-lagged last night? Were the Huskies still celebrating last night’s 5-set win over Penn State? Did the Gophs “win one” for Coach Cook, who’s last job was at Washington? We know it wasn’t because Oregon is much better than Washington; Washington beat Oregon last weekend. Was this the match that will change the course of the season? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Set 1: The Gophers were terrible. Most of our third touches were free-balls, and on the rare occasion that we actually spiked one, the Huskies dug our lips off, Honestly, 14-25 sounds closer than it felt. Hanson had 3 kills, which was only slightly encouraging.

Set 2: Tied 10-10, the Gopher Pins, especially Hanson, Gilk and Myers, fueled a long service run by Garr, reaching 17-10, and not looking back.

Set 3: This was tighter, tied 7-7 and 15-15, behind Hanson and Gilk, Kinney and Myers got going as well and Washington had no response. 

Set 4: The Gophers jumped out to an 8-0 lead — and the Huskies seemed eager to get to the locker room.

Serving was dramatically different one night later. Last night the Gophs killed almost any chance they might have had with horrible serving. Tonight, we had 6 aces vs 4 errors (I’ll take that any night). But more importantly, it was the Huskies who couldn’t serve, finishing with 4 aces vs 14 errors! I don’t know how well Washington served last night, but they couldn’t have served that bad while beating Penn State.

And as mentioned, Hanson (the leadership we’ve been looking for?) and Gilk showed up big time. Last night was one of the worst matches in Hanson’s career; tonight she had 15 kills and a .306 percentage. And Gilk had her breakout match as a Gophers, with 11 kills and a .550 percentage. And Myers, who came on a bit in last night’s fourth set, got started earlier and racked up 12 Kills (5 on overpasses) and 5 blocks. Strangely,  things went the other direction for Taylor; last night she was the Gophers’ lone bright spot, and tonight she barely made the box score. But she’s a freshman, so let’s give her a break.

NEXT UP:

At #22 Indiana on Friday, 5:00, BTN

At #12 Purdue on Sunday, Noon, BTN+

I’d be thrilled with another split.

Reader R.A. had shared his views before I even got home. His take on the match itself was pretty much the same as mine — except that R.A. was incensed by the endless babbling of the play-by-play announcer. I get it, the guy was a clown; but here is a tip for R.A. and anyone else annoyed by the admittedly amateur announcers we get on BTN+ — that’s what the MUTE button is for.