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The Terrapins had won  a couple of matches. Against Iowa and Northwestern – but still. So I was expecting a little more resistance. I was also expecting to see checkerboard jerseys, which I like. But I didn’t see either. Gophers 25-9, 25-18 & 25-17, raising our record to 11 & 5 overall, and 5 & 3 almost halfway though the Big Ten regular season.

In Set 1, our sometimes slow-starting Gophs jumped out to an 11-2 lead – with both of the Terrapin points coming off of Gopher service-errors. Our serving got a little better after that; 7 aces and 10 errors for the match. Gilk, who has struggled with her serve this season, was the worst at 1 & 3, Garr the best at 2 & 0.

Sets 2 & 3 were closer in final score, but the Gophers never trailed in either. (Maybe 0-2 in Set 3?) Our offense was strong, and fairly balanced. Kinney had 11 kills at a .500 clip, Hoecke had 10 kills at a .714 clip, Gilk had 9 kills at a .421 clip, Wooker had 8 kills at a .350 clip, and Taylor had 3 kills at a .600 clip. We also out-blocked the Terrapins 8 to 4. All strong numbers – against an over-matched Maryland.

STARTING 9: It is still not entirely clear who our starting 9 are, and we might never know – Coach Cook seems significantly more inclined to use his bench than McCutcheon ever did. (No judgement here, just reporting.)

* I think Hoecke & Taylor are our starting Middles, and both started tonight. But both have been benched, when struggling, in favor of Blazkova. Plus Minatee, who was a starter when she injured her knee a year ago, played a few minutes last night and again tonight, so she could soon be in the mix as well.

* Gilk played great Opposite from mid-October to mid-November last year, earning All-Big Ten Freshman recognition, was named to this year’s pre-season All-Big Ten Team, and she’s had a couple of great matches, including tonight. But she has also played poorly at times. The Freshman Crossen, whose natural position would seem to be Leftside, has looked great at Opposite in several matches, including last night vs Michigan. I expected Gilk to start last night, but Coach Cook played Crossen; then I expected Crossen to start tonight, but Coach played Gilk.

* Our next match is against #9 Purdue at Purdue, so I assume that Coach will play the 9 he thinks are our best – whoever that might be. I think that’s Hoecke & Taylor, but you could flip a coin between Gilk and Crossen. 

CORRECTION TO LAST NIGHT’S POST: In last night’s fairly lengthy ramble about Wooker — about her health and her futility vs Michigan, I reported that Wooker had hit a miserable .032. That was wrong and frequent contributor RA caught it; Wooker hit minus .032 vs Michigan. I keep my own stats for kills, but I can’t keep up with attempted hits, so I have to depend on the published stats for hitting %, and I missed the minus. It was late and I was tired.

Anyway, Wooker looked better tonight. She again got up slow the one time she went to the floor, but 3 of her 8 kills were from the backrow. She also had a couple of great digs, a pair of blocks, and a pair of Aces (vs 2 errors.) She had to be feeling pretty good. 

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:

LS was asked why the Gophers, with 4 Liberos on the roster, sometimes have Olivia Swenson, perhaps the least-likely Libero on the roster, wearing a Libero Jersey. I think it is because a new rule (last year?) allows teams to play two Liberos in the same set, as long as they’re not on the floor at the same time. And Liberos coming in and out do not count as substitutions, of which there is a per-set limit. This limit is generous and doesn’t come into play very often – but it could in a set that goes to 32-32 or something. So in recent matches, Olivia has played designated-server wearing a Libero Jersey – thus saving a few substitutions. Olivia is not much of a Libero (she did have one pretty good dig tonight) but she has been serving well. 

One of the most difficult plays in volleyball, in my opinion, is blocking against an opponent attacking your team’s overpass. You’re not expecting it, and probably never practice it. The opposing attacker isn’t expecting it either, but the ball is coming toward them, making the timing basic hand-eye coordination. But the ball is coming from behind you, and you aren’t allowed to touch it before your opponent, making your timing very difficult. I bring this up because the Gophers executed this very difficult play 3 times tonight. Stella did it twice and Taylor one. None of the 3 were block-kills, so they won’t show up in the box score, but all 3 kept the rally going.

NEXT UP: At #9 Purdue, next Friday, Oct 23, 6:00, BTN+

Good news: Our Gophers beat Michigan in 4 sets, 25-19, 20-25, 25-15 & 25-21 

Bad news: Our best player, The Wooker, was either less than 100% healthy, or Michigan figured out how to stop her. She finished with 4 kills, only one of which was in the first two sets – and that was a dink. She hit .032 for the match.

Evidence of less than 100% #1: she went down in Set 2 and got up very slowly despite the fact that the rally was still going. Evidence of less than 100% #2: she was rarely part of our serve receive, yielding to Crossen and Kinney – neither of whom have been receiving as well as Wooker. Evidence contrary to her being less than 100% #1: she had a season-high, maybe career-high in blocks; I had her with 6. Evidence contrary to her being less than 100% #2: she had an ace for match-point, and was the only Gopher server with no serving errors.

If it was Michigan figuring out how to stop Wooker – the key was playing a 6-2. Approximately 90% of D-1 teams play a 5-1, because your Setter is the most important player on the team, and unless your 2nd Setter is just as good as your #1, you want #1 on the floor for every point. The advantage of a 6-2 is that you have a sizeable Opposite on the court for every point – to hit and block. Half the time, in a 5-1, the primary blocker trying to slow down your opponent’s Leftside is your Setter, and blocking may not be your Setter’s strong suit. Your Middle helps as much as she can, but the opposing Leftside tries to pick on your Setter. But in a 6-2, you can put a big blocker in front of the opposing Leftside on every point – which is what Michigan did to Wooker and Kinney tonight. (Kinney was okay, but not great.)

It could be some of both, but I can’t get out of my mind the image of Wooker getting up slowly with the rally still going.

Back to the good news:                                                                                                                                                  #1: It was ugly VBall, and they shut down our best player – but we got the win!                               #2: We dominated the net, both offensively and defensively. We outhit Michigan .171 to .092, and, led by Wooker, out-blocked them 14 to 6. And that’s only the block-kills, we had a ton of partial blocks, contributing to the Wolverines pathetic hitting %.

#3: With Wooker shutdown, and Kelly less productive than usual, 10 kills at .179, somebody had to  step up, and both Crossen and Stella answered the call. The Freshman Crossen had 9 kills at .333, and Stella had a season-high, maybe career-high in kills with 6. The official scorer gave her 7, but don’t believe it.          #4: We also out-served the Wolverines. Only 10 aces vs 11 errors for us, but Michigan was 6 vs 14. If I had to guess, it would be that the Michigan coaching staff knew the Gophers were stronger at the net, and their only chance was to keep us out-of-system with over-aggressive serving.

NOTES:                                                                                                                                                                             1.Sydney Schnichels, featured in the cover photo of this blog, was a former Miss Minnesota High School player, who sat on the Gopher bench for two years without ever working her way into the Gopher lineup, played 6 rotations for the Wolverines. And she outhit Wooker. But the Gopher servers picked on Schnichels.                                                                                                  2. The Freshman Hoecke started, was unproductive, and was benched mid-Set 2 in favor of Blazkova (not Minatee!). Then Blazkova did something Coach Cook didn’t like, was benched mid-Set 4 in favor of Hoecke. They both played roughly the same number of points, but Blazkova’s numbers, 4 kills and 2 blocks were decidedly better than Hoecke’s, 1 kill and 1 block.                                                                                                                                                                                3. Stella’s sister Olivia was our Designated Server (not Acevedo), and served well; only 1 ace vs 1 error, but she took the Wolverines out-of-system quite often.

NEXT UP: Maryland, tonight, at the Pav, 6:00, BTN+

Home court, field, pool, etc gives the home team advantages, typically reflected in win/loss records. Baseball teams get the last at-bats, hockey teams get some sort of advantage on line-changes (sorry, I’m no puck-head), and familiarity with wind-conditions and line-of-sight back-drops can be advantageous. And then there’s the crowd. A raucous home crowd can pick up the home-team’s spirit and intimidate refs.

Often overlooked, however, is the impact of travel itself. Travel is tiring in the best of conditions, and traffic, flight-delays, and time-zone changes can disrupt an athlete’s personal routines. Little things that sometimes matter. Reader and frequent contributor RA caught yesterday’s post-match interview where Wooker reported that flight problems kept them in New Jersey overnight following the Rutgers Match, disrupting up the team’s rest. A distraction the Gophers overcame, thankfully.

Long-Time Reader GU noticed the eye-catching jump-serves of Buckeye Naomy Govou, “One of the best servers I have ever seen,” and hopes that Govou will avail herself of the portal to wear Maroon & Gold next year. 

JOHN: Wooker will be out of eligibility after this season and we will be looking for a dominant Left-side to fill Wooker’s shoes. There are three more Left-sides on the current roster who might step up to fill that role, but I wouldn’t turn Govou away – she led the Buckeyes with 12 kills yesterday.

But as much as it impressed GU, I wouldn’t welcome Govou just for her serve. I wasn’t tracking its impact on the Gophers receive, but the official stats show Govou with zero aces and one error. Top-spin, bullet-like, jump-serves are a major weapon in high-level men’s VB but not, based on my unscientific observations, in the women’s game. Yesterday, the Gophers handled Govou’s impressive serves with minor difficulty; I’ve seen them have more trouble with “floaters” and “line-painters.”

A hard-fought sweep, 25-23, 25-20 & 25-22, evening our Big Ten record at 3 & 3. I thought, going into this road-trip weekend, that the Ohio State match would be tougher than the Rutgers Match. In one sense, it was; we won 54.1 % of the points vs Rutgers, vs 53.6% of the points vs OSU. But that’s an obscure, perhaps irrelevant, statistic – we lost a set in Piscataway, but not in Columbus.

Our offense was fairly balanced:

• Wooker led the way, as usual, with 13 kills at a .313 clip. 
• Kinney almost matched her with 12 kills at a .241 clip. 
• Hoecke had 9 kills (mostly on slides) at a .500 clip, plus 4 blocks, and
• Gilk had 7 kills at a .375 clip.
• Taylor had 2 kills at .182. Not great. 

Hoecke had been benched against Rutgers. I predicted that, based on her season performance, she would be back in the starting lineup. And she was. 

Starting Opposite is the other position which remains unsettled. Versus Rutgers, Crossen, who had been playing great, started and played Sets 1 & 2; then was benched in favor of Gilk for Sets 3 & 4. The individual results were similar, but Set 2 was the Set the Gophs lost. I wasn’t sure who would start this afternoon, and I was confused by BTN announcing Crossen. It turned out that Gilk played Opposite for the whole match, but Crossen served for her. 

On this blog, we have debated service-philosophy at length, aggressive vs cautious. The Gophers reportedly lead the Big 10 in Aces, and I have argued that even roughly equivalent numbers, e.g., 8 aces vs 9 errors, is good serving – because aces and errors only tell part of the story. Aces vs errors does not tell us how often an aggressive, almost-an-ace serve, took the receiving team out-of-system; and how often a lollipop serve turned into a quick side-out – a result equivalent to a service-error. But I won’t make that argument today, because we had 4 aces and 13 service errors. Not good. Hoecke made 4 of them, maybe someone should be serving for her.

MISCELLANEOUS:

• The challenges went our way today. Coach Cook was 4 for 4, and the Buckeye Coach was 0 for 2. I thought that 5 of the 6 were correctly resolved (I couldn’t tell about the other one), but right or wrong, that was a 6-point swing – in a match that was 75-65 in total points. Good thing we won ‘em all.
• Wooker went down halfway through Set 2, and didn’t get up right away. I always think the worst – it’s her back – and the season is lost. But it was her ankle, and she got a kill on the next point.
• In a long volley, Stella likes to set the same hitter two, three, maybe four times in a row. I like it; this hitter has her rhythm going and is likely to get a kill on the next one. Gilk did.
• Middle Calissa Minatee made a brief appearance late in Set 2. It was a brief appearance; I don’t think she touched the ball. But it was significant in that it was her first live action since she blew out her knee  a year ago. Undersized for a Middle, Minatee hasn’t ever been much of a blocker. But she has been a very effective quick-hitter, which could give the Gophers a weapon they haven’t had this season.

NEXT UP: Back to back matches, both at the Pav:

• Michigan, Friday, Oct 16, 7:00, BTN+, and
• Maryland, Saturday, Oct 17, 6:00, BTN+

READERS WRITE:

Reader and frequent contributor RA didn’t think much of Stella’s performance vs Rutgers. “I thought that many of Stella’s sets vs RUT were too low or too far from the net, making it hard for our hitters. Other times, her sets had such high arcs the defense got in position to block our hitters, sometimes even waiting in place. I don’t understand, is Stella getting poor passes? It moved too fast for me to track full sequences. Bottom line: this team shows signs of mediocrity that can keep them out of NCAAs entirely.

Our #20 Golden Gophers got their first road win of the season, taking down the unranked Scarlet Knights in Piscataway, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22 & 25-16. The air went out of the Rutgers balloon about halfway through Set 4, but neither Maureen or I felt comfortable until then. And based on a coaching move that surprised me, I don’t think Coach Cook felt comfortable either. After dropping Set 2, Coach pulled both his freshmen, Crossen and Hoecke, replacing them with Gilk and Blazkova. 

I’d been telling you since January that Gilk was our every-set Opposite. But when Gilk’s performance was inconsistent through the non-Conference and into the beginning of the Big 10, Coach gave Crossen a look. I thought, and still think, that Crossen is a Left-side, but she has been terrific at Opposite – much more effective than Gilk. And Crossen was great in tonight’s Set 1! Crossen wasn’t great in Set 2, but our Middles were the ones getting outplayed in Set 2, so I wasn’t expecting the switch. But Gilk came in and played Sets 3 & 4 as well as Crossen had played Set 1.

Even more surprising was Hoecke getting the hook. Pre-season, I predicted our depth-chart at Middle as Taylor, Minatee, Blazkova, and Hoecke #4 – but Hoecke has been far and away our best Middle. Hoecke wasn’t great in tonight’s Sets 1 or 2, but I thought she had been playing well enough to earn more rope. But Coach didn’t think so and played Blazkova in Sets 3 & 4. Blazkova wasn’t much better – but we won both sets with her on the court.

Sets 1 & 2 were both relatively close – and yet very different. The Gopher Pins were the story of Set 1, I had Wooker with 6 kills, Kinney and Crossen with 5 each. 16 is a lot of pin-kills in a single set. But the Rutgers Middles were the story of Set 2. I wasn’t tracking their stats set-by-set, but Set 2 was clearly their best set and they finished the match with 25 kills at a .500 clip – vs 8 kills at a .200 clip for the Gopher Middles.

The obvious explanation for benching Hoecke is that she, and Taylor, were outperformed by their Rutgers counterparts in Set 2. The other explanation is that the Gophers had lost their only previous road match, to then unranked Illinois, so neither Hoecke or Crossen had ever won on the road, and maybe Coach thought his two freshmen were rattled. Maybe a little of each.

Wooker  was the dominant player we have come to expect, with another 20-kill match (inc 2 from back-row), at .320, plus 5 blocks, 3 excellent saves – the saves telling me that her back wasn’t bothering her, plus 2 aces. Kinney’s hitting was consistent, 13 kills at .387. Crossen had 7 kills before she was benched, and Gilk 7 after. A good match for our pins: 47 kills at .345. And Stella added 4 kills. 

Wooker’s 2 aces were offset by 2 service errors,. The Gophers overall had 7 aces vs 7 errors. I’ll take 7 & 7 any day. Gilk, who continues to struggle with her serve, was 1 & 2, and Coach brought Crossen back in to serve for her. Coach had Olivia serving for Kinney most of the match. Olivia serves okay, 2 aces, 1 error, but I don’t like it because when Olivia gets neither an ace or or an error (i.e., most of the time), now she has to place back-row defense, which she’s not great at. But, giving credit where credit is due, The Gophs strung a long service-run in Set 3, and another in Set 4, with Olivia serving – so maybe she deserves some credit for that.

MISCELLANEOUS:

• A Rutgers Set 2 surge, coming from behind to take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, came while serving at Kinney. 
• As noted above, our 3 Middles, Taylor, Hoecke & Balzakova were dominated by Rutgers Middles. Maureen thinks Taylor wasn’t healthy, as she seemed to be out-of-breath already in Set 1.

NEXT UP: Sunday, 3:00 at Ohio State, on BTN. I expect to see Hoecke back in the starting line-up. But I don’t know whether Coach will start Gilk or Crossen. We might not see that settled for a while – plus Acevedo is supposed to be back soon, which could scramble the picture further. Acevedo won’t play Opposite, but Kinney sure can.

READERS OBJECT

There was more objection, than usual, to my post re the loss to the Badgers. Either I was way off the mark, distracted perhaps by reports that the Vikings were unnecessarily running up the score with a fifth field goal – or readers really hate losing to the Badgers.

MC writes, “You’re wrong about this Badger team being great. They’re overrated.  Not as good as recent Badger teams. I thought the match was pretty even.”

SM writes, “You’re wrong about Palabiyik playing great. Every time she was called upon to make a set, Wisconsin got the point. This isn’t true of our opponent’s Liberos. And you’re wrong about Stella being coached to deliver quick, flat sets. If that were true, why isn’t that being communicated to the hitters? The problem is that Stella telegraphs her sets – allowing the blockers to set up.”

JOHN: It’s encouraging to know that women’s sports have advanced to the point that fans can argue about who was at fault for a loss. And encouraging to know that people are reading GopherVBRocks. Keep ‘em coming.( A majority of the responses to GopherVBRocks appear to be spam.)

Specifically on SM’s point regarding Palabiyik: I wasn’t tracking the results of plays where Palabiyik was called upon to make a set. If SM is right about this, I didn’t catch it. Of course it’s harder to get a kill on a bump-set from the Libero – that’s why it’s called “out of system” – meaning not the way your offense is designed to work. If the Wisconsin hitters had significantly better results on sets from their Libero – I guess I missed that also.

Specifically on SM’s point regarding the connections between Stella and her hitters: I wrote, “It could be that Stella just isn’t that good – but I have a different theory. Take it or leave it, I guess. But what I’ve been seeing, and in several matches, not just vs Wisconsin, there has been excessive (and unproductive) dinking. Which appears to be caused by our hitters reaching the ball too late – the opposite of telegraphing.

I don’t like the Badgers, and I don’t like losing to them, so I hate to admit this — but the Badgers are pretty good. We lost 21-25, 25-22, 15-25 & 23-25. Obviously the Badgers were the better team – at least this afternoon. They lost some early matches, to very good teams – but their best player is their freshman Opposite, from Puerto Rico, who hadn’t even arrived on campus yet. They look like a possible Final Four contender.

The Gophers hit only .187 for the match, and committed 16 service errors vs 5 aces (1 of the aces by sub Blazkova during mop-up duty at the end of our disastrous Set 3). Not likely to win many matches hitting .187 and committing 3 or 4 service errors to every ace. And yet, I will argue that the Gophers played well, maybe the best this 2026 squad has played yet – againist definitely the best team they’ve played.

Here’s why I say the Gophers played well:

• We won a set against the #6 team in the country, and two of the sets we lost were close and could have gone either way. They didn’t; the Badgers were better at the end of those sets.
• The Badgers only hit .241, and had 14 service errors vs 7 aces. This was not because both teams were weak on offense and bad at serving. It was because both teams were really good on defense, and on serve-receive. Hitters and servers from both teams repeatedly crushed balls that ricocheted off receivers or blockers and well out-of-bounds, or high in the rafters – only to see a defender make a miraculous save. Except for the outcome, it was great volleyball.
• I had the Gophers with 10 blocks, the two freshmen, Crossen & Hoecke leading the way – but probably two or three times that many that were dug up by the Badgers.
• Our Gophers had a handful of poor receives, especially Crossen, playing her first match vs an opponent of this caliber, and a couple of mis-communications – but probably two handfuls of amazing digs. I thought our Libero-corps (Palabiyik, Garr & Thibault) played great.

One season-long frustration that continued this afternoon was the propensity of the Gopher hitters to dink. Wooker gets a fair number of kills off dinks (two against the Badgers) for a couple of reasons: 1) her raw power (3 back-row kills against the Badgers) puts opponents on their heels; and 2) Wooker’s good at dinking. Our other hitters are rarely successful, and even Wooker seems to dink excessively. Reader Ross, who sits in front of me at the Pav, helped me realize that most of our dink-attempts are caused by poor sets – specifically sets that seem too low, throwing off our hitter’s timing – leaving a dink their only option to get the ball over the net..

It could be that Stella just isn’t that good – but I have a different theory. Ross isn’t ready to buy it, but here it is:

• I think Coach Cook wants the Gophs to employ a higher-tempo offense than what Coach McCutcheon ran, and he is coaching Stella to make flatter sets. So Stella is deliberately setting flatter sets (as directed). But our hitters haven’t yet adjusted to the flatter sets. 
• Why, one might ask, would Coach want Stella to deliver flatter sets? Don’t hitters like high sets?
• Of course they do, especially if that’s what they’ve grown up with. But blockers love them too. Flatter sets are quicker sets – they make it harder for the hitter – and harder for the blockers and diggers.
• In theory, hitters and setters can practice the flatter sets, eventually getting good at them – but it’s much harder for blockers and diggers to practice defending against flatter sets.
• And climbing the ladder, from a Sweet Sixteen team to a Final Four Team, requires getting out in front of the trend toward flatter sets.

If my theory is right, the Gopher hitters will catch up with Stella as the season progresses.

Individual Performances:

• Wooker continues to lead the team in kills, 14 vs the Badgers, including 3 from the back-row. (Would have been more if not for the Badger’s incredible digging.) But too many errors, and consequently a poor .120.
• The freshman Crossen contributed 10 kills, with barely any errors so a .421, plus 3 blocks.
• Kinney had 8 kills, but only .091.
• Taylor continued her offensive resurgence with 7 kills, and .500. (Middles usually have higher hitting percentages.)
• And as previously mentioned, Palabiyik, Garr & Thibault played well.

Miscellaneous:

• One of Hoecke’s two aces was for set-point in Set 2.
• The Gopher fed a back-row set to our D.S., McKenna Garr. The Badgers handled this attack by Garr, but I hadn’t seen that before. I wonder if we’ll see more of this? 
• The rules on “throwing” a ball over the net have loosened up over the years. It is now legal to “follow through” with an open hand. But you are still required, as I understand the rules, to initiate contact at the top of your vertical reach. You aren’t supposed to be able to catch the ball below the top of the net and throw a basketball-style hook-shot. Yet that was exactly what Wisconsin setter Charlie Fuerbringer did on all 6 of her kills – with nary a whistle. I don’t get it.
• I think there were 5 times when a Badger hitter had hit a ball out of bounds, and the ref awarded the Gophers a point – only to have the Badgers challenge that a Gopher blocker had touched the ball as it crossed the net. And they won every touch-challenge. They don’t show such replays at the Pav, so I am in no position to argue this one. But Fuerbringer’s 6 kills and the Badger 5 challenges threw 11 points to the Badgers that could have been 11 points for the Gophers – which could have changed the outcome of the match.

NEXT UP:

• Friday, Oct 9, 6:00, at Rutgers, on BTN+
• Sunday, Oct 11, 3:00 at Ohio State, on BTN

Neither team is ranked, but the 2026 Gophers have yet to win a road match. So keep your fingers crossed.

Northwestern came into the PAV with a record of 7 & 6, but at least tonight was the least competitive team we’ve seen so far, including the 3 from the Summit League. Gophs in three, 25-14, 25-11 & 25-9, a total score of 75-34. The Gophers hit .413 for the match, vs minus .036 for the Cats.

Georgia Lee subbed in late in Set 2, Lee, Gilk & Blazkova played all of Set 3, and before it was over, Madi Kraft & Olivia Swenson saw action. Every healthy player played – so not Minatee or Acevedo, who are still being held out. Given that we took Set 3 by a wider margin than earlier sets, it might have been that the Wildcats also played their bench in Set 3 – but I am not familiar with their roster.

Either it was my imagination that Wooker was not 100% vs Oregon (I don’t think she was), or she is recovered. Because she started left-front tonight (she didn’t vs Oregon) and played the entire match when other starters did not. I had her with a team-leading 10 kills, including one from back-row (none vs Oregon), plus 2 blocks and 3 aces.

I mention that Gilk played in Set 3. Gilk has been a starter for most of the season, but was benched during the Oregon match, and didn’t start tonight. Gilk had one convincing kill in Set 3, plus another strong hit that was saved by the Cats. Maybe those two swings will help restore Gilk’s confidence.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the Freshman Crossen. She started and played Sets 1 & 2 at Opposite, and played Set 3 at Leftside. (I think she’ll be playing Leftside next year.) She had 6 kills and served great. Only one ace, but Crossen was the server on a 7-point run in Set 1, and a 5-point run in Set 2. (Wooker, Hoecke & Stella were the front-row on both runs.) Garr also served well, 4 aces vs 1 error.

And speaking of Hoecke, our freshman Middle continues to impress: 7 kills, including 3 quicks, 3 slides & an overpass, plus 3 blocks. Garr served well, 4 aces vs 1 error. Kinney was fine, 5 kills, as was Taylor 3 kills and one block; neither playing in Set 3.

READERS WRITE:

Reader CB wonders, “What is so hard about serving?  Server holds the ball, nobody defending her, has practiced it a thousand times. Why should that be the thing she can’t do under pressure? Our players perform better during live action when there’s no time to think about it. It must be mental; do the Gophers need a psychologist?”

JOHN: CB is not the first reader to raise this issue. There is a mental aspect to serving. When I coached club ball, I told my players, “It’s just you and the ball. Don’t think about anything else — because nothing else exists.” 

Any 2nd-string 16 yr-old VB player can get 95+% of their serves “in” – if that’s the goal. But in modern D-1 VB, the last thing a serving team wants is a serve that’s merely “in,” because that allows the receiving team to run the offense they want. The goal is to prevent this. This is called taking them “out of system.” You do this with hard serves,  top-spins, “floaters” that dance like a knuckle-ball, serves that “paint the lines,” and combinations thereof. On top of that, every D1 team has an assistant coach whose during-the-match duty is to tell servers where to serve, i.e., at the receiver who has been struggling

Obviously, the more aggressive the serve, the higher the risk of error. And there are situational differences related to momentum: This might seem counter-intuitive, but I wanted my servers aggressive when we were trailing significantly late in the set. The odds are against us, but a couple of aces could change that, so serve aggressive. But if your teammates just made 2 service-errors in a row, just lob it over — don’t give our opponent the momentum.

My general rule, when I was coaching, was get your first serve in; you haven’t served for a while, so be a little cautious. Second serve, a little more aggressive. By the third serve, you have your rhythm down, so crush it. By the sixth serve, ease up. We’ve got so much momentum that our opponent will make errors without our help. Let them.

Anyway, there’s more to it than just get it in.

What, one might ask, is valiant about losing at home, 20-25, 20-25, 25-23 & 25-27, to a lower ranked Oregon team? Let me explain. 

After a pair of 20-25 sets, neither of which felt that close, I was certain the Gophs would be swept – and I was planning my headline: NO WOOKER, NO CHANCE. Wooker, who hit an amazing 5.21 kills-per-set during the non-conference season, had one kill in each of the first two sets, and 3 service-errors – clearly not the same Wooker we had been watching.

Then the Gophs won a tough Set 3, helped by 4 kills by Wooker. And then appeared to take a 26-25 lead in Set 4, led by 9 kills by Wooker. I was thinking REVERSE SWEEP. But I say “appeared to take a 26-25 lead” because when Hoecke hit a ball that seemed to go out off of an Oregon touch, at 25-25, every Gopher on the floor immediately signaled touch. The ref didn’t call the touch, but Coach Cook quickly challenged the call. After a lengthy study, the call stood. I won’t blame the loss on bad officiating – because slight touches are hard to see and probably the toughest video-replay in all of sports.

Let’s go back to Wooker. How could she have been so dominant in previous matches, so bad in tonight’s first 2 sets, and then again super-effective in Set 4? My theory: I think she injured her back during Thursday’s match vs Illinois. I haven’t seen this reported anywhere, and certainly not on the official Gopher Website – it never would be. But I’m pretty sure.

The first clue was the play vs Illinois, when Wooker collided with another player and went down. It was barely visible on TV, but Wooker stayed down for a while. I immediately worried that it was her back. The BTN+ announcer explained that Wooker had injured her leg – but remember, it was BTN+. Wooker eventually got up — but didn’t play well after that.

Tonight’s first clue was when the Gophers began the match with Wooker in the front-right position – requiring her to rotate to the back-row on the first side-out. Instead of starting left-front as she usually does – the logical position for any team’s star hitter.

Additional clues were when Wooker rotated back to the front-row, Stella set everyone but Wooker. When Stella finally set Wooker, Wooker kept dinking. When Wooker finally attacked the ball, she looked okay but kept hitting it way long – likely caused by having slightly less vertical than she is used to.

And each time she went down, diving for a dig, or after a collision, she got up – slowly. Volleyball players are trained to pop up quickly, and generally do. But not Wooker tonight.

So how did she improve so dramatically in Sets 3 & 4? This I am less sure of, but I have some ideas. There is a brief intermission between Set 2 and Set 3, and this was when Wooker’s play changed. She began getting kills by cutting the ball very sharply, sometimes referred to as a 4 to 4 hit, as opposed to blasting away and daring the over the blockers to stop her. Then a combination of confidence and adrenaline overpowered her pain. Or maybe the Trainer gave her an injection – perfectly legal and ethical.

The Wooker we saw during the non-conference season was the best Wooker we’ve ever seen. The Wooker we saw during tonight’s Sets 1 & 2 was the worst Wooker we’ve ever seen. And the Wooker we saw during tonight’s Sets 3 & 4 reminded me of Wooker early in the 2024 season – when she was pushing through the pain.

So how did the rest of the team play tonight? Somebody must have been playing well for the Gophs to have even been in Sets 1 & 2 without their best player. For the match:

• Freshman Middle Hoecke had 9 kills (7 slides and 2 over-passes) with one error on 19 swings (.421), 3 blocks, and 2 aces – 1 for the winning point in a close set 3.
• Sophomore Middle Taylor had probably her best match as a Gopher, 6 kills (5 quicks, 1 slide) with zero errors on 11 swings (.545), and 9 blocks. That’s a combined 15 kills with one error on 30 swings (.467), and 12 blocks – certainly the best performance by a pair of Gopher Middles since the Tapp sisters graduated.
• Sophomore Leftside Kinney had 15 kills, including 4 dinks, with 3 errors on 36 swings (.333) and 1 block. 
• Freshman Crossen subbed in for Gilk at Opposite, not Crossen’s natural position, early in Set 2. She initially looked tentative at the net, and then made two bad serve-receive errors. But then she caught her breath and went on to get 8 kills with 3 errors on 23 swings (.217). 
• Pre-season All-Big Ten Opposite Gilk got the hook early, 2 kills with 3 errors on 7 swings (minus .143) and 1 service error. I wonder if she’s hurt?
• I didn’t think that Stella was setting very well in Set 1. Causing our hitters, even our Middles, to dink too much. It seemed obvious to me that she was avoiding Wooker, probably because Stella knew Wooker was hurt, and maybe that threw Stella’s game off.  Her setting got better as the match wore on.

The match included several looong volleys, with both teams keeping the volley going when it appeared to be over. Good volleyball.  

NEXT UP: 

Unranked Northwestern, Thursday, 7:00, at the PAV, on BTN+ 

And

#6 Ranked Wisconsin, Sunday, 5:00, at the PAV, on BTN.  

READER ADDRESSES QUESTION:

GopherVBRocks reader and frequent contributor R.A. attends “VB Insider meetings” hosted by Coach Cook, and reports that “Coach is holding out injured players,” meaning Acevedo and Minatee, “until Oct. 15 to give them time to fully heal.” And R.A. suspects that Coach thinks he also doesn’t need them until then.”

JOHN: Thanks for this RA, it answers some of the questions I’ve been posing. And obviously the health and safety of these young women is a high priority. But a specific date on the calendar (I think Oct. 15 is when my property taxes are due) seems a bit arbitrary, and not tied to their rehab progress. It seems surprising that Acevedo and Minatee would both be “fully healed” simultaneously. I have no inside info regarding their health, but I’m thinking, given our 0 & 2 start, that IF either is “fully healed,” we might need them sooner than later.

I said at the end of my write-up of the SDSU match, and again in my Big Ten Preview, that tonight’s Big Ten Opener was a must-win match. My logic was that with 10 of our Big Ten opponents nationally ranked, we need to sweep the 7 who aren’t ranked – Illinois being one of them.

But we lost in four, 22-25, 25-14, 18-25 & 22-25. As the scores suggest, Sets 2 and 3 were sort of lop-sided (the Gophs led 5-2 in Set 3, but fell behind 9-12 and never threatened after that). Sets 1 and 4 were full of drama.

Set 1: Illinois started the match with a pair of  aces. Then, with the score about 5-5, Wooker went down. They didn’t show her going down, and my first thought was that her back went out. The BTN+ announcer said it was her knee, but who trusts a BTN+ announcer? After a delay, Wooker got up, and had two quick kills. We outhit the Illini decisively in Set 1, something like 15 to 8 – difficult to lose a set like that. But we gave away the set, and ultimately the match, with horrendous serving: zero aces vs 6 errors in Set 1.

Set 4: With the set tied at 5-5, we got caught in our weakest rotation – the receive where Kinney is hitting right-side (she’s stronger left-side), Taylor Middle, and Gilk is hitting left-side, where she is less effective – and Stella reluctant to feed her. I’ve been bragging about Wooker’s back-row hitting, and she should be an option from back-row in this rotation,. But I think she was 0 for 2 from back-row tonight. We fell behind 7-10 before, ironically, Gilk nailed a left-side kill to escape the rotation. From there, we basically traded side-outs until falling behind 16-20. Facing defeat, we rallied to take a 22-21 lead, mostly with Garr serving behind a front-row of Wooker, Taylor and Gilk. I felt we were headed for a Set 5 – until we weren’t.

For the match, we outhit Illinois 57 to 48. With decent balance: Wooker, another strong match, had 18, Kinney 15, Gilk 11, Taylor 8 and Hoecke 5. This was a 2026 offensive breakout for Taylor (who started, I wasn’t even sure she would) – 8 kills at a .400 clip in 4 sets, vs 15 kills at a .156 clip in 16 non-conference sets. But on defense, a step backward for Taylor – she had 23 blocks in her 16 non-conference sets, but only 1 block in 4 sets tonight.

Collectively, our 5 primary hitters hit .483. But it’s silly to say we out-played Illinois except for serving, because serving is part of volleyball. 

I think it is fair to say that the Gopher coaching staff hasn’t yet figured out who our best servers are. Garr, our best server during the non-conference had 3 aces vs 2 errors. (Garr almost had a 4th ace but for a 3rd-touch, out-of-bounds-kick-save by Illinois.) Wooker, Palabiyik and Stella, all of whom are guaranteed to be among our 6 servers in every match, had a combined 2 aces vs 4 errors. The rest of the team, including Gilk, Thibault and Lee – none of whom have to serve, combined for zero aces and 5 errors.  Acevedo looks healthy enough to serve, not sure why she isn’t.

Twice, in Set 1 and again in Set 2, we had 3 consecutive service-errors (Gilk-Wooker-Lee, and later Wooker-Lee-Stella, I think). When I coached club volleyball, I preached to my team that their most important serves of the season were those following two service errors by their teammates. You cannot, under any circumstances, miss a third consecutive serve!

I thought that Palabiyik had a very good match digging – and a poor night on serve-receive.

NEXT UP: #20-ranked Oregon, Saturday, 6:00, at the PAV, on BTN+

If you haven’t already seen them, scroll down and check out my

NON-CONFERENCE WRAP-UP  and BIG TEN PREVIEW

I wrote them Tuesday but couldn’t post them until midday today because I was out of town.

BIG TEN PREVIEW

The Non-Conference Season has multiple purposes.

1. Given the world we live in, revenue generation is #1, both ticket revenue and, I presume more importantly, TV revenue. So be it. (I assume the Gophers generated some revenue.)
2. Evaluating / finding your team. Our Gophers have 16 athletes on the roster, of which 9 will typically play in a given set. So which 9? And who are the next athletes off the bench in each position? The coaching staff probably has a pretty good idea heading into the non-conference season, but maybe not certain how the freshmen, the incoming transfers, and those returning from injuries, will hold up against live competition.
3. Scoring “points” with the Committee who will determine seeding for the NCAA Tournament following the Conference Season. Performance within the Conference Season should be and will be the primary factors in the seeding, but non-conference performance can become a tie-breaker in this critical seeding. Especially a prized “signature win” or a dreaded “signature loss.” (We did not score a “signature win,” unless Creighton wins the Big East, and we avoided a “signature loss.” )

So that leaves finding and preparing the team, and determining the depth chart. To me, and perhaps most GopherVBRocks readers, there were some significant surprises:

• THE WOOKER IS BACK, IN SPADES! From the middle of last season, our roster included 4 significantly injured players. I was hoping that all 4 would be healthy and ready to contribute when the ‘26 season began. But none as important as Wooker.

> Others on the ‘26 roster were highly recruited coming out of high school, but none as highly as Wooker.

> In her freshman season, in ‘22, Wooker was the team’s second-ranked hitter with 2.73 kills per set, and was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team.

> In her sophomore season, in ‘23, Wooker was the team’s best hitter with 3.24 kills per set, including 14 kills vs Texas, 16 kills vs Nebraska, and 21 kills in a win vs # 6-ranked Oregon.

> And Wooker is a Leftside Hitter – exactly what we need to replace the graduated Julia Hanson – and the most likely candidate to do so.

But after hurting her back very early in the ‘24 season, playing hurt for the rest of ‘24, then reportedly ready for the ‘25 season but then not able to play at all, and still appearing injured this past Spring, it was hard to believe that Wooker was going to replace Hanson. I was not at all certain that she would ever play again. And I continue to worry about her back. 

Yet she is back, playing the role of last year’s Hanson, and shining like a star! In 8 non-conference matches, Wooker has 146 kills, basically twice 2nd-best Kelly Kinney, an amazing 5.21 kills-per-set, again way ahead of 2nd best Kinney. With almost twenty of her 146 kills coming from the back-row! I remember Wooker getting set back-row a couple of times in ‘23, but I don’t think she ever had a kill.

And even that’s not all. During Wooker’s healthy and productive seasons, she served poorly. In ‘22, she served 15 aces vs 35 errors, and in ‘23, she served 9 aces vs 51 errors. But in this season’s non-conference matches, she has served 21 aces vs 19 errors – a very encouraging improvement, especially since her role as a back-row hitter makes her to be one of our 6 servers. 

• The second encouraging surprise has been our freshman Middle Elena Hoecke. Hoecke, out of Lino Lakes, was one of the best High School players in Minnesota the past two years, and was rated the #1 MN recruit in the Class of ‘26 (#14 nationally). And she looked good during the Spring Exhibition Season.

But the leap from High School & Club Ball, to D1 top-twenty, is a big one. Steph Samedy and Stella’s older sister Samantha starred as freshmen, but other highly-rated recruits, such as Julia Hanson, Taylor Landfair and Carter Booth, struggled as freshmen. That’s why I rated Hoecke our #3 Middle – not even a starter, in my pre-season depth chart posted last month.

But Hoecke’s non-conference performance has proved me wrong.  Hoecke enters the Big Ten Season as our #1 Middle, and the only clear starter. Playing in 27 of the Gophers’ 28 sets, Hoecke racked up 53 kills (.339), mostly on slides, and 24 blocks.

Hoecke’s serving hasn’t been great, 2 aces vs 11 errors. We don’t necessarily need Hoecke to serve, but the fact that Coach Cook has had her serving suggests that she serves well in practice.

• It is also encouraging to see Palabiyik back – playing like Palabiyik. Palabiyik’s serve-receiving could be better, but I love the way she takes charge in our live-action defense.

• The most disappointing surprise has been the performance of Taylor. In my pre-season depth chart, I had rated Taylor as our #1 Middle – but right now I’m not certain she ranks ahead of Blazkova as our #2 starter at Middle. And it’s not obvious that Taylor will even be our #3 when Minatee is fully healthy.

Height is important at Middle, critical on defense, and Taylor is the tallest player on our roster. And one of the most athletic. And during the non-conference season, she led the Gophers with a good-but-not-great 1.44 blocks per set. And only one behind Hoecke in total blocks, 23 to 24 – despite the fact that Hoecke has played in 27 of the Gophers 28 non-conference sets, and Taylor only 16.

I had high hopes for Taylor, and still do, because her height, her athleticism and her aggressiveness give her the potential to dominate the net when she is front-row. And we saw flashes of this potential last year, during her freshman season. Probably as much potential as we saw from Carter Booth during her freshman season – and Booth evolved into an All-Big Ten Middle (unfortunately not for the Gophers).

Taylor’s problem is her offense – 15 kills, and 8 errors, in 45 swings – a .156 percentage. 156 is terrible for a Middle – Hoecke and Blazkova hit a combined .311 during the non-conference season, and Minatee hit .427 before she was injured last year. Taylor was strong on defense and weak on offense last year too, but I was expecting improvement from her freshman to sophomore seasons. And maybe there will be, but we haven’t seen it yet.

Exactly why is not clear. Taylor watching 12 of the Gophers 28 sets from the bench (she played 57%, watched 43%) did not seem like a vote of confidence from Coach Cook. Was he trying to motivate Taylor? Was he auditioning Blazkova for the starting role? Did he already think Blazkova gave the Gophs a better chance to win?

Maybe Taylor is not completely healthy? The fact that Taylor started the majority of the non-conference sets makes me think she is healthy, but her ineptitude makes me think she isn’t. I’m not sure.

• Which brings me to the other disappointment: the health of Minatee and Acevedo. Both experienced serious injuries. But that was last October. I wasn’t surprised that they weren’t dressed for action during last Spring’s Exhibition Season – no sense in rushing them back for that. And not shocked, when the Non-Conference Season began in August, and they fully participated in pre-match warm-ups but never played.

But both seem to be otherwise healthy young women, they look comfortable in warm-ups, especially Acevedo (Minatee looks okay), and it’s been almost 12 months. I was surprised they didn’t play a little last weekend in Sioux Falls. They’re veterans, it’s not like they haven’t experienced the intensity of a Big Ten Match, but I’d have been inclined to play them a set or two if they are healthy. And the fact that they didn’t makes me think they’re not.  

So here’s my idea of what the depth chart looks like heading into tomorrow’s Big Ten Opener:

SETTER: Stella will be on the court for every point. Stella is quick, she covers all 900 square feet of the court, and I like her decision-making regarding who to set, where & when. Her sets aren’t perfect, and maybe there is something she needs to do better to get Taylor going. But Stella is our setter, and will play if she can walk.

Georgia Lee is our back-up. No doubt Lee is a fine young woman, but the Gophers will be in trouble if Stella goes down for an extended period. 

LIBERO: I was right about our Liberos. Palabiyik is fully healthy, she’ll wear the jersey and play 11 of the 12 half-rotations. 

Garr will play 6 half-rotations including serving. Her 13 aces vs 11 errors during non-conference are good numbers. 

Thibault will play 5 half-rotations and won’t serve. Thibault has always been excellent at covering our front-row players. She has struggled with serve-receive, but so far this season her serve-receive seems much improved. 

The freshman Kraft won’t play much barring injury to one of the 3 in front of her. She could serve occasionally, but I doubt it.

OPPOSITE: Gilk is the only left-hander on the roster, so the only natural Opposite. She was an All Big Ten Freshman last year, even though her mid-season excellence faded late in the season. And she is the only Gopher named to this year’s pre-season All Big Ten team. Gilk’s non-conference performance has been mediocre – overall hitting .191 and serving 8 aces vs 13 errors. I still see Gilk as our everyday Opposite, but she needs to recapture the level of play she demonstrated during the middle of her freshman season.

Kinney, though right-handed, is comfortable at Opposite. She is currently one of our starting Leftsides, but could slide over to Opposite if necessary.

And the freshman Crossen has played Opposite in relief of Gilk. I don’t like her passing. 

LEFTSIDE: My pre-season prediction for our depth chart at Leftside was Wooker, Kinney, Acevedo, and Crossen. My Wooker as #1 prediction was more wishful thinking than prediction, but so far my wish is coming true. As mentioned earlier, Wooker has been spectacular.

Kinney has been good, 3.0 kills-per-set (78 total) at a respectable .270. She will start the Big Ten Season as our #2 Leftside.

As mentioned, Acevedo looks good warming up, but is yet to set foot on the court. It’s been a year since Acevedo played. What I remember was a good-but-not-great hitter (.281), an excellent server (15 aces vs 8 errors), and a poor serve-receive (her official stats from last season say her was average, but the official stats on serve-receive can be very misleading).

If Kinney, Gilk, and the Gophers generally continue to play well, I think Acevedo might have trouble finding playing time even once she’s completely healthy. Maybe she’ll serve for Hoecke and get an occasional opportunity for a back-row kill? But if Kinney falters, or if Gilk falters and Kinney slides to Opposite, Acevedo could easily get the chance to become a starting Leftside.

The freshman Crossen’s numbers are unimpressive, 1.0 kills per-set, at .250. But much of her playing time has come at Opposite, which wouldn’t seem to be her natural position. When she’s playing Leftside, gets a good set, and doesn’t get blocked, Crossen crushes the ball as hard as any Gopher in recent memory. I wouldn’t feel bad to see Crossen as our #2 Leftside. 

MIDDLES: My predicted depth chart, Taylor, Minatee, Hoecke, and Blazkova, was way off. Minatee’s absence during the non-conference season created an opportunity for Hoecke, and as described earlier, Hoecke has taken full advantage. I have no doubt that Hoecke enters the Big Ten Season as our #1 Middle. 

And the only clear starter. The other starting Middle position remains, in my mind, very much up for grabs. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Taylor. I projected her as our #1, she was in the line-up for the season opener vs Arizona State, she led the team during non-conference play with a good-but-not-great 1.44 blocks per set, and I hope she will be playing like the starting Middle we need. But as described earlier, Taylor has not performed like a #1 on offense – not even like a #2. Maybe she’s not been 100% healthy, but when the whistle blows for the first serve of the Big Ten Season, it doesn’t matter why.

Blazkova, on the other hand, has so far lived up to the modest expectations I had for her. She seems unlikely to make First Team All Big Ten, but she has been playing better than Taylor. I was thinking of Blazkova as bench strength, in case of injuries. But we already have an injured player, and another who might be injured, and/or isn’t playing very well. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Blazkova was our other starting Middle to open the Big Ten Season.

Minatee, like Acevedo, hasn’t played at all so far. But she’s been dressed and warming-up for the past month, it seems like she should be ready to play eventually. Minatee was a starter when she got hurt last year, and though she seems too short to produce many blocks, she hits effectively. Minatee has proven especially effective on “quicks,” a type of attack that requires a near-perfect first-pass to Stella, and this year’s improved team serve-receive gives hope for more frequent near-perfect first-passes. Making it reasonable to imagine Minatee having her best year ever.

I would be a little surprised if Minatee was one of our starting Middles to open the Big Ten Season, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Minatee ends up playing before the season is over.

BIG TEN PREVIEW

Last season, the Gophers finished tied for 6th place in the Big Ten. Then advanced to the Sweet 16, but failed to advance to the Elite 8, leaving them one of the 9 to 16 best teams in the country.  In January, I predicted that the ‘26 Gophs would be better, hopefully top-4 in the Big Ten and Elite 8.

They opened this season ranked #14, and start the Big Ten ranked 15 – so not as good as hoped. But rankings are just rankings, Texas A & M was essentially the #8 seed entering last season’s NCAAs, and won it all. A top-4 finish by the Gophers in the Big Ten is not out of the question.

But Big Ten Conference play will be a grueling test – with 11 teams ranked in the top 31, and we play them all:

# 1 Nebraska 

6 Wisconsin 

10. Purdue 

14. Penn St 

15 MN

18. Indiana 

20. Oregon 

23. So Cal 

27. UCLA 

29 Mich St 

31. Wash 

Nebraska dominated the Big Ten last year and I thought they were a lock to win it all – before getting beat, in Lincoln, by A & M.

Wisconsin didn’t look good in their first couple of games. But in one of their last non-conference matches, their freshman Opposite from Puerto Rico played for the first time – and dominated the match. So they’re probably stronger than their record suggests.

The next 9, Purdue through Washington, are probably all about equal. We have a slight advantage on scheduling, in that we get 6 of the ranked teams, Wisconsin, Penn St, Indiana, Oregon, Mich St & Wash at the Pav; versus only 4, Nebraska, Purdue, So Cal & UCLA on the road. 

A stretch-goal would be to win 5 of these 6 home matches, 2 of these 4 road matches, and all 7 of the matches versus the unranked teams. That would be 14 & 3, probably good for 2nd place. Winning 4 of these 6 home matches, 1 of these 4 road matches, and 6 of the 7 matches versus the unranked teams would leave the Gophers 11 & 6 –  probably good for 5th place.