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We got our first look at the 2025 Gophers this afternoon, in an exhibition match vs Northern Iowa. Technically, the Gophs first match was this morning vs the Iowa Hawkeyes, but that match was not open to the public; must be some limit on the number of public, Spring, exhibitions? 

In case you’re wondering, the Gophs won Sets 1, 2 & 4 of this four-sets-regardless exhibition. We lost Set 3, playing our second=string against what I think was N.I.’s starters. I focussed my attention on two things: New Players, and Who will win the “starting” role for contested positions.

NEW PLAYERS:

• Freshman Libero McKenna Garr, from Rush City, MN, was not given the opportunity to play Libero, but she got several shifts as a D.S., and was impressive.
• Freshman Opposite Carly Gilk, from Champlin Park, played in Sets 3 & 4 and looked great, earning 8 kills.
• Junior Transfer Setter (from Rutgers) Georgia Lee played some. Her role will be to step in when Stella is injured. We would not, in any case, want Stella to get injured, and this concern grew after watching Lee. At least today, she did not look as strong as the graduated Elise McGhie.
• Grad Transfer Middle (from Purdue) Lourdes Myers was a pleasant surprise, playing Sets 1 & 2 and looking good enough to compete for a starting role.
• Freshman Middle Jordan Taylor, from Texas, playing Sets 2 & 3, also looked good enough to compete for a starting role. 
• Red-shirt Freshman Leftside Olivia Swenson (Stella’s sister) played sparingly, and has yet to convince me that she is a D-1 athlete. AND
• Red-shirt Freshman Setter Stella Swenson looked great, as expected, and well worth the expense of two “full rides.”
• Much anticipated Freshman Leftside Kelly Kinney, the Gophers’ highest-rated player in this recruiting class is, sadly, still in Florida finishing high school. It wasn’t long ago that high school seniors were expected to spend the Spring of their freshman years attending high school. But it has become common for volleyball recruits (and presumably other “fall athletes,” like football and soccer players) to graduate early and enroll in their future college for the Spring Semester. There may be a perfectly good explanation why Kinney didn’t – but it makes me nervous.

COMPETITION FOR STARTING ROLES:

• There is no competition at Setter. It’s Stella or pray for an electrical outage that cancels the match.

• I expected a 3-way competition at the Opposite position, featuring Crowl and Schnickels, who played behind Grote the past two seasons, and the freshman Gilk. But 2022 Ms. Minnesota Volleyball Schnickels played little and, at least today, did not appear to be a serious contender. Not sure why; she didn’t seem injured.

Crowl and Gilk are both left-handed, a clear advantage for an Opposite. Crowl, a 6-4, 5th year Senior is taller, more experienced, and, at least today, the better blocker; I think she had 5 blocks today, in roughly 2 sets. And she a great save of someone else’s poor first pass. Plus, she’s a decent server.

Gilk, a 6-2 Freshman, had minimal success blocking, and minimal success serving – but she had 8 kills! in less than 2 full sets at Opposite. If today is any indication, it appears that Crowl is superior defensively, but Gilk will produce more offense – maybe a lot more. 

• I also expected a 3-way competition for the two MIddle positions (4-way if you count Engeman, but I don’t) .

> The 6-1 Junior Minatee played Sets 1 and 4, and looked good. Minatee was a starter last year, and as the only “returner” of the 3, would seem to have an edge in this competition. But she’s undersized. 

> The 6-3 Grad Transfer Myers played Sets 1 and 2 and looked like a competent, experienced D-1 Middle.

> The 6-3 FreshmanTaylor played Sets 2 and 3 and looked great.

Even with Engeman playing Sets 3 and 4, the Gopher Middles dominated N.I. I predict that Minatee  and Myers will be the starters in the first match of the fall season, but Taylor could push both and could become a starter by season’s end.

• I also expect a 3-way competition for the Libero and D.S. positions.

> The Junior Palabiyik (I’m considering the nickname “Tilapia” which is easier to say) is the incumbent Libero, played the position most of today, and will likely be the starter to open the fall season.

> The Junior Thibault, the incumbent D.S., played Libero in today’s Set 2, D.S. in other sets, served well throughout, and will likely be the starting D.S. to open the fall season.

> But the Freshman Garr looked very good. I expect Palabiyik to retain her starting Libero role, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Garr pushes ahead of Thibault before season’s end.

Interestingly, there were times today when the Gophers employed a 3-Libero serve-receive, as Nebraska did on their path to last year’s National Runner-Up finish. If we can get away with this (Liberos sub in and out freely, but there is a 12 substitutions per set limit on other players), Stella ought to get better passes than Shaffmaster got back in 2023 – from that horrible receive including Landfair and Wooker.

• As of today, Leftside Hitter is the most up-in-the-air of any position, with 4 potential candidates (5  if you count Olivia, but I don’t) for 2 positions. 2024 leading Hitter and First-Team-All-Big-Ten senior Hanson is the obvious front-runner. Barring injury, I can’t imagine Hanson won’t be one of the two. She was decent today. But after that, the outlook gets murky.

> The senior Wooker has shown the ability to be a dominant Big-Ten Leftside Hitter – when she’s 100% healthy. But she had a serious back-problem most of last season, missing some matches and struggling in some of the matches she played in. And during today’s exhibition, Wooker was on the bench in sweats and limping. The U is tight-lipped about the health of their student-athletes (does any reader know anything?); my guess is that she may have had off-season surgery – and they’re keeping her out of action until August?

> The Sophomore Acevedo played a fair amount last year, in place of Wooker, great now and then, poorly now and then; mostly okay. She was also decent today, playing most of the match, but I suspect she is option # 4.

> Kinney is still in Florida finishing High School.

NEXT UP: Saturday, April 5, in Brookings, S. D., two matches vs:

10 a.m, vs South Dakota State and

1:30 p.m., vs. Creighton (an Elite Eight finish last year)

I’ll be there covering the matches for GopherVBallRocks. (Gonna be a long drive home, not sure when I’ll get the blog-post done.)

The Spring schedule, below, including 5 exhibition matches, starts Saturday.

• March 29, 5 p.m vs. Northern Iowa @ the Pav, free & open to the public. 
• April 5, 10 a.m, at South Dakota State (Brookings) (180 mi. From Mpls)
• April 5,  1:30 p.m., vs. Creighton (also in Brookings)
• April 12, 3 p.m,  vs. St. Thomas @ the Pav, and
• April 26, 1 p.m. vs. North Dakota, in Madison, S.D. (200 mi. From Mpls)

This spring’s schedule includes 5 exhibition matches (vs 4 in previous years, although 2 are on the same day):

• March 29, 5 p.m vs. Northern Iowa @ the Pav 
• April 5, 10 a.m, at South Dakota State (Brookings) (180 mi. From Mpls)
• April 5,  1:30 p.m., vs. Creighton (also in Brookings)
• April 12, 3 p.m,  vs. St. Thomas @ the Pav, and
• April 26, 1 p.m. vs. North Dakota, in Madison, S.D. (200 mi. From Mpls)

READER FEEDBACK on my Moss vs Souhan tirade:

I was expecting my  recent post regarding Moss vs Souhan to be either ignored, or to generate complaints such as “stick to volleyball” or “everyone knows that Moss deserted his team during that game.” (Unfortunately, not everything that everyone knows is true.) But surprisingly, the readers who responded all agreed with me regarding Moss vs Souhan.

C.B. wrote, “You’re right that Moss and Page stand at the top of the list of greatest Vikings ever. It was a huge mistake to trade him – my wife lost interest in the Vikings when they did. As far as character, I remember watching Moss interact with fans after scoring a touchdowns, often picking out disabled fans to give a ball to.”

M.L. wrote, “I quit reading Souhan years ago when he made fun of Jerry Kill’s seizures. Haven’t read him since.”

D.B. wrote, “I didn’t know the stuff you shared about Moss’s background, but it makes sense. Moss was rough around the edges, but clearly smarter than people gave him credit for, and probably a better person too. And I know from reading Souhan that he is an arrogant jerk. No surprise the two didn’t get along.”

READER FEEDBACK RE MY ANALYSIS OF THIS YEAR’S TEAM

Besides a few, “Too long, I didn’t read it”s:

R. A. has a higher opinion of Acevedo than I do. R. A. also fears that it will be difficult for the Gophers to compete with richer teams in this NIL/Portal environment. 

L. T. and T.R. had a lower opinion of Shaffmaster than I did, and look forward to the Stella Swenson Era.

HAVE TO GET THIS OFF MY CHEST

My apologies in advance for breaking my own rule of sticking to topics related to Gopher Volleyball, but I have to get this off my chest. (And yes, the Reader Feedback above, while true, is merely an excuse for this posting.)

Sportswriter Jim Souhan  (a terrible writer in my opinion) has a long-standing grudge against Randy Moss (one, along with Alan Page, of the two greatest players in Viking history) and decided to use the recent trade of Dallas’ Luca Doncik for the Lakers’s Anthony Davis as yet another opportunity to slander Moss in this morning’s Strib. To be fair, Souhan’s opportunities to slander Moss might be limited due to reports that Moss has cancer and may be dying. 

For those Readers who do not follow the Vikings, here is some backstory:

• Moss grew up in an all-Black, economically disadvantaged community, and played his college ball at Marshall, which didn’t offer the credit-earning classes in handling the media that marquee football programs have;
• Souhan has long exhibited a tendency to criticize Black athletes more harshly than White athletes; and
• The tension between the two began when Souhan was covering the Vikes and Moss apparently failed to show Souhan the respect Souhan felt he deserved.

In this morning’s story, Souhan notes that:

• Moss didn’t play hard when he didn’t feel like it. (Note: Moss, who was usually double-covered, would sometimes feign disinterest to decoy the opposition, and then burn them when they bought his ruse; and Moss once joked about this to Sid Hartman, who was so clueless that he printed the quote.)
• In a bad mood, Moss walked off the “field” during a loss to the Giants. (Note: Moss was an active participant in the second-to-last play of the game, a Viking touchdown. After the extra point, with 5 seconds left, and no timeouts, Moss approached the Vike’s Special Teams Coach and volunteered to participate in a desperate on-side-kick attempt. That Coach, reasoning that Moss had not practiced their planned on-side-kick, said no. Discouraged, Moss strayed down the sideline, beyond the prescribed bench area, toward the opposite end zone, from where he watched the final, failed on-side-kick, and then, with time expired, headed for the locker room. If he had been on the “field,” he would have been the 12th man, negating some miracle play. But he was on the sideline. Souhan certainly knows that this oft-repeated myth of Moss abandoning his team, is not true.)
• And that the Viking management (no names offered by Souhan) soon traded Moss, for nothing, i.e., the 7th overall pick in the draft, who was a bust (hardly Moss’s fault), because of his bad attitude (as reported incessantly by Souhan).
• This morning’s story fails to note that Souhan, at the time, cheered the trade, insisting  that the Vikes would be a better team without Moss than with him. (The following year’s record did not support Souhan’s theory.)

ALMOST LAST CHANCE (I’m off VB anyway, but “Spring V-Ball is just around the corner.)

There have been lots of wonderful athletes in the almost 150 year history (beginning with a 1876 baseball game vs the St. Paul Saxons) of Gopher Sports, and it seems a bit silly to argue over who the G.O.A. T. is. But I would argue that Gable Steveson belongs on the short-list of candidates. Steveson’s accomplishments include:

• Olympic Gold Medalist
• 2-time NCAA Champion and 3-time Big Ten Champion (soon 3 & 4?)
• A 93-2 career record (.979), 56-0 in dual meets. and 
• 2-time Hodge Trophy Winner (NCAA Wrestler of the Year)

Steveson has only 3 regular season meets left in his historic career, then presumably the Big Ten Meet and the NCAAs. If you’ve never seen Steveson  wrestle, you should.

(Sorry this took me so long to write.) Let’s start with the shaky assumption that everyone eligible to return, or scheduled to arrive, will do so, and that “Portal” related news will be strictly positive. 

FIRST AN INVENTORY: We definitely lose Shaffmaster, Grote, Awoleye, McGhie and Gray – all out of eligibility. At a minimum, Shaffmaster, Grote, and Awoleye, all key contributors on the 2024 starting line-up, need to be replaced. (McGhie and Gray’s contributions were less significant, except, though seldom used in this role, McGhie was our back-up Setter, and we have to have one of those.)

Retained from 2024 (hopefully) are starters Wooker, Hanson, Minatee and Palabiyik, and reserves Acevedo, Crowl, Thibault, Schnichels, Engeman and Ng. 2025 freshmen include Stella and Olivia Swenson (“redshirted” this past season), plus incoming freshmen:

• Outside Hitter Kelly Kinney;
• Opposite Carly Gilk;
• Middle Jordan Taylor; and
• Libero McKenna Garr. 

Plus two portal acquisitions: 

• Grad-student Middle Lourdes Myers    
• And Junior Setter Georgia Lee 

We can’t be sure how much last year’s starters will improve (but it is reasonable to expect some improvement), and even less about how good, or how ready, the freshmen will be, or how helpful the transfers will be. But in theory we have every position covered. (Doesn’t mean we’d turn down more help from the portal.)

POSITION BY POSITION

Let’s start with SETTER, generally considered the most important position on a volleyball team, and clearly the biggest switch from ‘24. For multiple reasons, I have a high degree of confidence in Stella Swenson:

1. She looks to me like the second coming of sister Samantha, a 3-time All-American. I saw Samantha play a couple of times in high school, and I’ve seen Stella play a couple of times in high school, and I can’t tell them apart.

2. High school ball to college ball is a big jump (less so now that elite HS players play on elite Club Teams at National Tournaments), and I wasn’t sure if Samantha would be ready for the Big10 as a freshman – but she was. And Stella has had an entire extra season practicing with the team as a healthy red-shirt.

3. Last Spring, I saw 3 of the Gophers’ 4 “exhibition” matches. In each match, Coach Cook played only Shaffmaster in Sets 1 & 2, played Shaffmaster and McGhie in Set 3, and Stella in Set 4. I saw no drop-off in the Gopher Offense in Set Four.

4. If I was Coach Cook, and if I had any doubts about Stella being ready to be our Setter next season, I would have used her as Shaffmaster’s back-up (Stella is clearly better than McGhie) this past season. The fact that Cook chose to redshirt Stella tells me that Cook wanted to preserve Stella’s 4 years of eligibility because expects her to become a star.

Stella brings a different skill-set than Shaffmaster, but not a lesser one. She may struggle a bit next year, and be better in ‘26. But with all due respect for Shaffmaster, I think that Stella, assuming that she stays healthy and sticks with the program, will eventually run a stronger Gopher offense than Shaffmaster did. I expect her too be ready.

Georgia Lee, who appeared in 29 matches for Rutgers these past two seasons, will compete with Ng, who appeared sparingly for the Gophers, for the critical when-you-need-one role of back-up in case of injury or illness to Stella. Lee, who started for Rutgers against USC, UCLA, Michigan State and Purdue in 2024, looks to be a good replacement for McGhie.

SERVE-RECEIVE is next on my mind (given our struggles in recent years). Most teams employ a 3-player receive, and the weakest of the 3 gets targeted most frequently by opponents, making a teams’ serve-receive only as strong as the weakest of their 3 receivers. During the ‘21 and ‘22 Seasons, for example, the Gopher receive included Wenaas, who was so good that she rarely saw a receive, McGraw who was pretty good, and Landfair, who was picked on without mercy. We lost Wenaas to the Portal between ‘22 and ‘23, and it hurt us more than losing Booth or Landfair. Then we lost Landfair to the Portal for ‘24, and while we missed herpower hitting, I hoped it would cancel out the loss of Wenaas. But it didn’t; receiving remained the weakest part of our game.

We started ‘24 using Wooker, Palabiyik, and Hanson, later mixing in Thibault and Acevedo, these 5 taking 91% of the seasons receives. Palabiyik handled the most, which might make her seem like the weak-link, targeted by opponents. But not really; Palabiyik was on the floor for every receive all season (no one else was), and Palabiyik typically covered the gaps between herself and teammates. Palabiyik is not yet the receiver that Wenaas or Murr was, but she was not the weak-link. Hanson was mediocre, Wooker (playing hurt) was bad, and Acevedo worse. Washington U wasn’t a great team, at 9 & 11, finishing well behind our Gophers in the Big 10, but they embarrassed us in 4 sets on our home court because we couldn’t receive a serve. Painful to watch.

I expect our ‘25 receive to be much better. Libero Palabiyik, whose receive was decent, and D.S. Thibault, whose receive got better as the season went on, will be challenged by McKenna Garr, a three-time All-Stater and finalist for Miss Minnesota Volleyball, who led her Rush City High team to three straight state tournament appearances, and was named an AAU Nationals All-American. If Garr plays herself into our starting receive, as Libero or D.S. that should make our receive better. And if not, it should mean that  Palabiyik and Thibault have improved enough to out-perform this talented newcomer.

But our receive will also include an outside hitter. I assume that Hanson, a terrific back-row hitter will be a 6-rotation player for the ‘25 Gophs, but that doesn’t mean she will necessarily be a standard part of our receive, and if she is it will because her receiving has improved. The lineup will include two other Outside Hitters who could challenge for a receiving role.

• Freshman Outside Hitter Kelly Kinney is the highest nationally-rated among our Class of ‘25, and is well regarded for her passing as well as her hitting. I haven’t seen her play, but passing is considered one of her strengths. (And her passing “highlights” are good.) So she seems a strong candidate – if she wins a starting role as a hitter..
• Opposite Carly Gilk was a Miss Minnesota Volleyball finalist, the No. 1 ranked player in Minnesota in the 2025 class, the 2024 Star Tribune Player of the Year, and, as I saw with my own eyes at the State HS tournament, a terrific passer. So she also seems a strong candidate – if she wins a starting role as a hitter.
• Crowl and Schnichels, the other candidates for starting Opposite, could also compete for a role on serve-receive. Crowl is decent but not great. I haven’t seen enough of Schnichels to have an opinion.  
• Wooker was good enough to be part of our (poor) serve-receive during the ‘23 season, and she’ll be a senior next fall. If she’s healthy, who knows what she could do?
• Acevedo’s serve-receive did not impress this past season, but she was a red-shirt freshman, first year with the team. Maybe she’ll improve dramatically. 

If I had to guess right now, I’d guess that our 2025 receiving corps will include Palabiyik, Garr, Hanson, and either Kinney or Gilk – and be significantly improved from these past two seasons.

LEFTSIDE HITTERS: We should be returning all 3 of our Leftsides from ‘24, and adding a highly rated freshman. I expect spirited competition for the two starting positions.

• Hanson, a senior coming off a First Team All Big 10 season, is the obvious favorite as one of the starters. She’s “only” 6-1, but her terrific vertical creates the potential for “shock & awe” hits. She also hits effectively from the back-row, making her a likely 6-rotation player, regardless of whether she continues as part of our serve-receive. Her blocking and digging were both mediocre, but she’s really only played one season of college volleyball (it is hard to explain why she didn’t get more opportunity during her freshman and sophomore seasons), so she ought to be better in ‘25.
• Wooker is the other incumbent. She had a disappointing season in ‘24, because she was injured all season. She did the best she could. She is a very good volleyball player; if she is 100% healthy this fall, I expect her to be the other starting Leftside.
• Acevedo showed flashes of excellence as a Leftside , this past season, and was the Gophers most consistent strong server. But she also looked overwhelmed at times, especially as a serve-receiver. But she was a red-shirt in her first season of college ball; she could show enough improvement to earn a starting role.
• And then there’s Kelly Kinney,  a “wild-card.” The  #11 rated recruit in the country, the 6-2 Kinney led her club team to a National Championship this summer, played on the U19 National Team in 2023 and 2024, and participated on the 2023 U21 National Team at the FIVB World Championships. And as mentioned above, she is supposed to be a strong passer as well as a Hitter. 

 I say wild-card” for a couple of reasons. 1) Unlike Gilk, Taylor & Garr, Kinney is not yet enrolled at Minnesota, and given that she is the most highly-rated of our incoming freshmen, I worry that she might still be looking at other offers. (Let’s hope not.) And 2) Kinney is listed as “Outside Hitter” because she has played both Leftside and Opposite, so what position will Kinney play as a Gopher (assuming she’s really a Gopher)?  If she turns out to be our strongest Opposite in ‘25, might she play there her freshman year, and move to Leftside in ‘26 when Hanson & Wooker have both graduated? If I was Coach Cook, I’d be disappointed that Kinney isn’t on campus for Spring Practice.

OPPOSITE will be interesting, and not just because of Kinney. We have enjoyed terrific Opposites for 7 of the past 8 seasons. From 2017 through 2021, we had six-rotation, five-time All-American and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year, Steph Samedy (right-handed), who has since won championships in the world’s premier pro-volleyball league (the Italian Serie A1) and Club World Championships. In 2022. Then we had Jenna Wenaas, playing out of position. And these past two seasons, we had Lydia Grote. Grote wasn’t as good as Samedy, but she was First Team All Big Ten this past season (second team in 2023). So this has been a position of strength. The competition to replace Grote should be spirited.

• Lauren Crowl, a 6-4, left-handed, fifth-year senior, is the most experienced. Height is more important for an Opposite than a Leftside (more blocking opportunities), and left-handed is a huge advantage when hitting from the rightside. And yet, Crowl has ridden the bench for 4 years behind Samedy, Wenaas and Grote. Hanson rode the bench for 2 years behind Landfair and Wooker, then blossomed into a star when given the opportunity to play regularly; could Crowl be another Hanson?
• Sydney Schnichels, a right-handed, red-shirt sophomore, is, like Crowl, 6-4, and like Hanson and Kinney, was very highly-rated coming out of high school. I feel like Schnichels has a better chance to blossom into a star than Crowl – but I’ve only seen Schnichels play a partial set here and there, and don’t really have any sense of what she can do,
• I did have the chance to watch Carly Gilk play in this past November’s State HS Tournament (Class AAAA), and was very impressed. The left-handed (Opposite is definitely her D1 position) Gilk hit effectively from Opposite, Middle, Leftside and Backrow. Gilk is 6-2 (as was Grote) and was the strongest serve-receiver I saw in the Tournament (I did not see Garr), so she has 6-rotation potential. 
• And there’s Kinney. (see above)

MIDDLES: Our Gophers have not had even one (we’d like two) consistently strong Middles since Regan Pittman graduated. (Pittman never used her covid-bonuus year of eligibility, and 24 yr-old Gable Steveson is wearing Maroon and Gold again, so… Unfortunately, Pittman is playing pro ball.) Taylor Morgan had an explosive vertical, Katie Myers was a strong server, Phoebe Awoleye was a strong blocker, and Carter Booth looked like a future super-star (but seems a disappointment for the Badgers). But none produced consistent Middle offense. To be fair, consistent Middle offense requires a strong serve-receive (which the Gophers haven’t had of late) and a top-notch setter (which the Badgers don’t have). Could Gilk and Garr and Stella bring back our Middle Offense?

• Calissa Minatee, a 6-1 (too short?) Junior, was one of our two ‘24 starters (due to limited competition), and likely to start again in ‘25. Minatee showed flashes of brilliance early in the ‘24 season, including 7 blocks in the season-opener against Stanford, 9 kills and 6 blocks in the upset of Texas, 11 kills and 4 blocks at Baylor, and 11 kills in our first match with Wisconsin (vs the 6 inches taller Booth) – and then largely disappeared. I do my own scorekeeping, and there were nights when Minatee played the whole match (i.e. half of it, a 3-rotation player) and barely showed up on the scoresheet. She also got benched on occasion.

There was no indication of an injury. Did Minatee lose self-confidence? Did Shaffmaster lose confidence in Minatee? Did opponent scouting reports negate her limited repertoire (mostly slides)? I don’t know. But given that she will likely play a lot for the ‘25 Gophers, we need to see significant improvement. (Not impossible from sophomore to junior year.)

• Portal-transfer Lourdes Myers seems the best guess to replace Awoleye as the other starting Middle for the ‘25 Gophers, coming off  a strong ‘24 season with Purdue. (Not sure the reason, but the Boilermakers, a better team than the Gophs in ‘24, lost 4 players to the portal – the other 3 going to 2024 Final Four Teams.) Though she may not have been the Boilermaker’s best, the 6-3 Myers hit .356 for the season and posted 4-or-more blocks 16 times, and 6-or-more blocks 4 times, and finished 25th in the Big Ten in blocks per set.  
• Incoming freshman Jordan Taylor might be the one with the most potential upside. Taylor did not come out of H.S. as highly rated as some of her Gopher teammates, but she was three-time All Conference, three time Conference Blocker of the Year, and 2023 All-Greater Houston First Team. She’s 6-5 (you can’t coach that) and described as “physical.”  
• Kali Engeman, last year’s portal acquisition, from Georgia Tech (where she didn’t start either), was last year’s “Third Middle.” I wasn’t expecting Engeman to be much of a solution when Awoleye or Minatee were stinking it up so bad they got benched; and she wasn’t – but she wasn’t any worse, and maybe Awoleye or Minatee needed the benching. [As always, I should note that Engeman is a Dean’s List student and no doubt a fine young woman – and a pretty good volleyball player – you’d be glad to have her on your team at the Y. But picking up bench-jockeys from Georgia Tech is not a path to a Big 10 Championship.]

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP (This will make me look stupid, but here goes): 

The ‘25 Gophers will certainly play a 5-1, plus Libero & D.S.

• SETTER – Stella Swenson
• LIBERO – Palabiyik
• DEF. SPECIALIST – Garr
• OPPOSITE – Kinney
• LEFTSIDES – Hanson and Wooker
• MIDDLES – Minatee & Myers

OVERALL FORECAST:

Hanson, Schnickles, Stella and Gilk were all the #1 rated Minnesota prospects in their graduating classes. Some readers may not be impressed, as the State of Minnesota does not have the population of California, Texas, etc. But MN has long been a girl’s volleyball hot-bed. (Our youth “select” teams are consistently competitive in National Tournaments.) And unlike football and basketball, the ‘25 Gopher volleyball squad will include the very best our state has produced. This alone is a reason for optimism. 

Assuming they stay relatively healthy, the 2025 Gophers will be better than the 2024 Gophers. We’ll miss Shaffmaster’s kills and leadership, but Stella’s quickness should compensate. Our Rightside Hitting may not be as consistent as what Grote provided, but I expect our Leftside Hitting to be better. I expect our Middles to be about the same. The big improvement should be in our floor game, especially our serve receive. Some combination of Palabiyik, Thibault, Garr, plus Kinney, Gilk and maybe a healthy Wooker has got to give us a better serve receive than what we had in ‘24. Given that serve receive was the weakest part of our game in ‘24, and given that serve receive is critical to an effective offense, even improvement from below average to above average should have a big impact on our win-loss record. We also will have respectable depth.

MISCELLANEOUS: The Gophers recently announced the addition of Nellie Coleman (Spicer) as the volleyball team’s General Manager. This may raise questions like “Huh?” “Who was it before?” and “What does a GM do?” Answers: We never had one or needed one before, and her job will be deciding who gets how much NIL money.

In late August, prior to our first match, our Gophers were ranked #18 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll. I wrote at the time that this ranking was about right, and that a plausible “stretch-goal” for the ‘24 Gophs was to finish 5th in the Big 10, and make the Sweet Sixteen. So I was, in a sense, dead-on regarding the “stretch;” we finished tied for 6th, were invited to the Tournament and won our first match – but fell short of the Sweet Sixteen. But my highly accurate overall prediction was despite being way off the mark in my assessment of our strengths and weaknesses. 

My biggest disappointment was our serve-receive. Shedding Landfair (she had a great year for Nebraska, but they never let her touch a serve-receive), and with the maturing of Palabiyik and the addition of Thibault, I thought we would be improved over 2023. But serve-receive continued to be our Achilles Heel, costing us match after match.

The biggest individual disappointment was Wooker, who I predicted would have a great year. She did not, but to me, the reason was obvious; she injured her lower back early, and played hurt (sometimes sat out) most of the season. Wooker is a talented player, and I firmly believe that if Wooker had been healthy all season, we would have won at least a couple of the matches we lost, especially the 5-setters, and would have finishhed at least a 5th place team – which would have resulted in a higher seed, and an easier path to the Sweet Sixteen. (It is important to remember, of course, that injuries are part of sports, Louisville lost the NCAA Championship Match missing their best player, who rolled her ankle in the Semis.) 

I also over-estimated Acevedo. A strong exhibition match vs Iowa State caused me to think Acevedo was ready to contribute at the Big 10 level, but she was not. Serving for Wooker, Acevedo led the team in aces with 37 (just barely, Grote had 35, and Hanson 33), and with a plus 11 was the only Gopher with positive numbers for aces-minus-errors. But her .121 hitting % was anemic (Hanson .268, Grote .234 & Wooker .193), and for most of the season, Acevedo’s passing was less than adequate. (She came on a little toward the end of the season.) My thought is that Acevedo was a freshman playing like a freshman. She’ll be better next year.

Some of my expectations were met. I expected Grote to play great, and she did, making First Team ALL-BIG TEN. I expected our Middles to be weak, and they were – except, oddly, for the two matches vs the Badgers. I thought the Badger Middles would dominate, but somehow Awoleye and Minatee out-played them. (Still not sure how.) Overall, Awoleye had more success blocking than I anticipated, and was named Second Team ALL-BIG TEN, but she produced minimal offense. Minatee was streaky, playing great vs Wisconsin, and in a couple other matches, but completely missing in action in several matches. She was a sophomore, and could get better.

Fortunately, my over-estimation of Wooker and Acevedo were off-set by my under-estimation of Hanson and Shaffmaster, both of whom were, deservedly, named First Team ALL-BIG TEN and All American Honorable Mention. 

Expectations were high when Left-side Hitter Julia Hanson arrived in the spring of 2022 as the Strib’s 2021 Metro H.S. Player of the Year, but then spent the 2022 season mostly on the bench behind Landfair, Wooker and Wenaas. In 2023, it was Landfair, Wooker and Grote keeping Hanson out of the Gophers’ front row, although Hanson did get the opportunity to demonstrate her effectiveness as a back-row hitter. (I have to admit that I wasn’t a fan of subbing Hanson into the back-row – because the 2023 team needed a second strong serve-receiver more than a fourth hitter.) Whatever, we never got the chance to see what Hanson could do as a 6-rotation hitter; I thought she would be okay, but I wasn’t 100% certain that she would even beat out Acevedo for our second-best (behind Wooker) Left-side.

Hanson was terrific in 2024, leading the team with 473 kills (Grote 2nd with 333), 4.01 kills per set (Grote 2nd with 2.90), and a strong hitting efficiency of .268.  Many of her kills were the “shock & awe” variety, and many (around 15%, the Gopher stats don’t track this) were out of the back-row. She out-hit Wenaas in our signature win over Texas, and out-hit Landfair in Lincoln. (We lost to Nebraska in 4 sets, but we were one of very few teams to win even 1 set in Lincoln.) I wouldn’t describe Hanson as a great passer, but she was the best passer of our hitters, and far from the weak-link in our serve-receive. (I wish she had more than 1 year of eligibility left.)

Zeynab Palabiyik also played very well. I assumed she would be our every-day Libero, and hoped she would deliver. She exceed my expectations,

SHAFFMASTER ERA FINALE

Under-estimating MELANIE SHAFFMASTER is all on me; she had played better every year she wore Maroon & Gold, frosh to soph, soph to junior, etc. and continued this trend by playing even better in her 5th, Covid-Bonus season. My anticipation of Stella Swenson running the Gopher offense is understandable, but it doesn’t justify my pre-season lack of enthusiasm for Shaffmaster’s final season.

For 5 seasons, Shaffmaster provided the Gophers with a truly unique skill-set with which to run the Gopher offense. Comparing Shaffmaster’s career stats with those of, say, Samantha Seliger-Swenson (I cannot find stats for Laurie Berg), is unfair to  Seliger-Swenson in that, due to Covid, Shaffmaster played 5 seasons. But dividing Shaffmaster’s stats by 5 and Seliger-Swenson’s by 4, to produce “season averages,” isn’t fair to Shaffmaster, because the 2020 Covid-season wasn’t a full season. So, I think the fairest comparison is to throw out Shaffmaster’s 2020 Covid-season and look at her 2021-2024 stats. 

Over these 4 seasons, Shaffmaster posted 4,442 assists, 383 kills and 313 blocks, averaging 1,111 assists, 96 kills and 78 blocks per season. By comparison, 3-time First-Team All-American Seliger-Swenson posted 1,415 assists, 50 kills and 56.5 blocks per season. (And I’ll throw in another comparison: Nebraska’s Bergen Reilly, the 2024 Big 10 Setter of the Year posted 1,352 assists, 81 kills and 62 blocks this season.) Comparing stats is never apples-to-apples because there were different players around them, but this comparison highlights the difference one would expect: Shaffmaster, not quite as quick on her feet, annually produced 21% fewer assists than Seliger-Swenson’s (18% fewer than Reilly), but 92% more kills than Seliger-Swenson, and 38% more blocks (19% & 26% more than Reilly). I am unable to locate all-time Gopher, Big 10 or NCAA Records for kills or blocks by Setters, but given her skill-set, and that she played 4.7 seasons as the Gopher Setter, it is very likely that Shaffmaster now holds (and will forever pending another pandemic) multiple all-time records for kills and blocks by Setters. Shaffmaster was also “clutch;” coming up with her biggest plays in critical situations. Regardless of how well Stella performs in coming years (I’m thinking great), I will long-remember the Shaffmaster-Era.

All in all, the 2024 Gopher Volleyball season provided thrilling victories, disappointing defeats, and ended about the way I expected.

UP NEXT (after the holidays): MY 2025 PREVIEW.

Our tied-for-6th-place-in -the-Big-10, 6-seed in the region, Gophers, on the road at the SEC Champion, 3-seed Kentucky Wildcats, weren’t supposed to win, and we didn’t, Kentucky in four, 11-25, 25-23, 22-25 & 24-26. The set-scores tell the story as well as I can; we were horrible in Set 1, very competitive after that, with long, hard-fought points featuring spectacular saves on both sides. But not quite enough, so, for the second year in a row, no Sweet Sixteen.

And tonight’s Gophs looked very much like the team we’ve been watching all season:

• Hanson led our hitters with 15 kills (inc 2 from the back-row); 
• Grote had 13 kills;
• Wooker 11 (inc 3 dinks);
• Shaffmaster added 5 kills;
• Awoleye had 4 blocks and Minatee (a pleasant surprise) 4 also; and
• Acevedo led the Gophs in both aces (3) and service errors (4).

No Gopher was off their game; but nobody really stepped up – the way we needed to pull off the upset. Thinking back, Awoleye and Minatee were unexpectedly dominant in our upsets of Texas and Wisconsin, but merely competitive, tonight, vs good Wildcat Middles.

I’ve written often about our one, weak, half-rotation, the one where our serve-receive is Hanson-Palabiyik-Wooker and our front-row hitters are Grote at Leftside and Wooker Rightside.

Set 1: We started the match with this as our first-receive, and were down 0-4 before the crowd was seated – poor choice, I think, by Coach Cook. Set 2: Grote’s best set. We were tied 4-4, 7-7, 11-11, before falling behind 11-18, but pulled ahead 18-17 with Shaffmaster serving (same front row, but Grote and Wooker can switch across to their natural positions on our serve). When Kentucky finally put a ball down, I thought uh-oh, here it comes. But the Wildcat’s star, SEC Player-of-the-Year, Brooklyn Deleye served long, we rotated, and Acevedo served back-to-back aces for a 3-pt lead, Kentucky pulled within one at 24-23, but then served into the net. Set 3: Down only 5-6, Kentucky ran 4 points vs our weak rotation to make it 5-10, and we basically traded sideouts the rest of the set. Set 4: As in Set 2, we were tied 4-4, 7-7, 11-11, before Kentucky ran 4 points vs our weak rotation, as in Set 3, to go up 12-16. Back in better rotations, we went ahead 20-18, and we could taste a fifth set. But it didn’t happen. The existence of a chronically weak half-rotation is not necessarily poor coaching; your roster is your roster, and the rules require you to rotate. But I wouldn’t have started the match in that rotation.

In a week or two, I’ll post my thoughts (and yours if you’ll send them to me) about the 2024 season, and also my thoughts (and yours) about  next year. John

We needed a win over Western Kentucky to advance, and we got it, 25-22, 25-20, 19-25 & 25-23. But it wasn’t easy, especially Set 4, when we trailed 14-19, and it felt like we were headed for another all-too-familiar 5-setter. 

• All four sets started 4-4. 
• Set 1 stayed tied to 15-15 before the Gophs took over. (Zero service errors for the Gophs in Set 1.) 
• The Gophs pulled away early in Set 2, helped by 8 service errors by the Hilltoppers. (An astonishing 18 for the 4-set match! VS 1 ace. ) 
• In Set 3, we were tied at 11-11 when the wheels fell off, part of that in our chronically-weak half-rotation, where Grote is hitting Left-side and Acevedo, hitting for Wooker, at Right-side. But our offense stayed basically dormant even after rotating Hanson, not her usually dominant self, to the front-row.
• The middle of Set 4 was just as grim. At one point, Coach Cook subbed Schnickels in for Grote (who had gone cold anyway) for stronger blocking, but it didn’t help. Then with Hanson (never our best server) serving, the Hilltoppers made a series of unforced errors to square the set at 19-19. We fell behind again 21-23, got a side-out and rotated to what should have been Acevedo’s serve. But instead (we may have been out of substitutions?), we had Wooker serve – the Wooker that hasn’t served all year because her error rate was sky-high – and she nailed an Ace to tie it up at 23-23. We earned another point to reach match-point, and then the Hilltoppers made another unforced error.

The Hilltoppers, who came in with a winning streak of 22 matches, outhit our Gophs .250 to .186, but served themselves out of the match. They can’t possibly have served that poorly during their 22 win-streak; my guess is they watched video of the Gophers humiliating 0-3 loss to Washington, and thought they too could beat the Gophs with aggressive serving. Then again, if they had served more cautiously, we probably would have hit better.

NEXT UP: Probably Kentucky, tomorrow, 6:30 maybe(?), maybe ESPN?

As I feared, the NCAA Selection Committee was not impressed with the Gophers 10-loss, tied for sixth-place in the Big 10 record. Instead of a 4-seed, conferring home court for the first 2 rounds, they assigned us a 6-seed, and we will be headed to Lexington Kentucky. Our first round opponent will be Western Kentucky, and if we advance, our second round opponent will likely be the Kentucky Wildcats.

I won’t complain for 2 reasons:

• A 4-seed was a lot to ask with 10-losses and tied for sixth-place; and
• A 6-seed draws an 11-seed, followed by a 3-seed, followed by a 2-seed; whereas a 4-seed draws an 13-seed, followed by a 5-seed, followed by a 1-seed. In other words, a  6-seed’s path to the Sweet 16 is tougher than a 4-seed’s path, but a 6-seed’s path to the Elite-8 is easier than a 4-seed’s path.

Western Kentucky went 18 & 0 in their seemingly weak CUSA conference, but they lost to Illinois and Michigan State, and I don’t see any signature wins on their resume. We should beat them.

Kentucky went 14 & 2 to win the SEC, one game ahead of Texas. SEC V-ball is not Big 10 V-ball, but they deserve a higher seed than the Gophs. But they’re beatable. Among the teams that beat them are Nebraska, Penn St., Purdue, Stanford & Texas; we lost to the first 4 of these, but beat Texas. Kentucky is definitely beatable, even on their court..

It is not clear, as I write this, that the Gophers’ 13 & 7 Big 10 record, 20 & 10 overall, tied for 6th in the Big 10, #16 in the AVCA poll, will be good enough for a top 16 seed in the NCAAs. But the Gophs did what they needed to do, beating Ohio State at the Pav 25-16, 30-32, 25-14 & 25-15. As the scores suggest, the Gophs dominated the match, except for an epic Set 2, during which the gutsy Buckeyes refused to surrender.

The Buckeyes outstanding Outside Hitter, Emily Londot, who finished the match with 13 kills and 4 aces, had half of those during a middle-of-Set 2 run that elevated the Buckeyes from an 11-5 deficit to a 17-20 lead. Julia Hanson, who finished the match with 23 kills, .400, and 3 aces, was clearly the dominant hitter of the match, but there were a couple of rotations, during Set 2, the we avoided settiing Hanson – apparently because Londot was across the net from her. (Was this Shaffmaster decision? Or a coaching decision? I couldn’t say.) Instead Shaffmaster repeatedly set Grote, who hit and hit – with limited success (9 kills, .172). Set-point opportunities went back & forth, but eventually we ran out of substitutions, requiring Acevedo to play front row instead of Wooker, and Awoleye to serve instead of McGhie, and the Buckeyes prevailed. 

But during Sets 1, 3, & 4, the Gophs, led by Hanson and Shaffmaster (42 assists, 12 digs, 7 kills and 5 blocks) with help from Grote (9 kills), Wooker (9 kills), and Awoleye (6 kills & 4 blocks), were clearly the better team. Teams that play a 5-1 are generally stronger with their setter in the back-row, so they generally start with their setter as their first server. But Shaffmaster is so good in the front row (blocking and attacking) that the Gopers can start a set in almost any rotation. And in Sets 3 & 4, Coach Cook started Shaffmaster front-left, to change the Hanson- Londot match-up, making Grote our first server. This was a spectacular success: Grote, serving behind a Hanson-Awoleye-Shaffmaster front-row, ran 7 points to start Set 3, and 6 points to start Set 4, and Ohio State never got closer than 5 points in either Set, (Good tactical coaching.)

Ohio State tried all-night to attack our serve-recieve of Thibault, Acevedo and Hanson (plus Palabiyik, who they tried to avoid) , but we held up reasonably well, especially as the match went on. At one point, with Palabiyik in the center and Hanson near the left edge of the court, a Buckeye served hard between Hanson and the boundary, and as Hanson moved to attempt a receive, Palabiyik dove in front of her to handle it instead. (Kind of what my teammates did for me back when I played double-B.) 

NEXT UP: The brackets for the NCAA Tournament will be announced late afternoon on Sunday. There is a chance that the Gophers’ 6th in the Big 10, #16 in the AVCA poll finish, plus signature wins over Texas & Wisconsin, could earn the Gophs a top 16 seed, which generally means hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. But this is not guaranteed; keep your fingers crossed.