Given that I didn’t post it until this morning, it’s likely that many readers had not read my scouting report on Illinois – where I predicted a tough match – and a Gopher victory. Surprisingly, and it surprises me as much as you, I was dead on. Illinois, though unrated, came into the match with an almost identical record as the Gophs, has similar weapons, and was playing at home in front of a good senior-night crowd. But our Gophers played tough when they needed to (the opposite of what the T-Wolves are doing as I write this), Gophers 20-25, 25-18, 25-22 & 26-24.
Set 1: Our serve-receive, the Gophs’ Achilles Heel all season, bit us right away for a 0-4 start. We pulled even at 8-8, but then the Illini ran 6 pts, again mostly on poor serve-receiving, to fall behind 8-14 & 11-19. Strong blocking by Awoleye (also in the scouting rpt) got us back to 15-20, but that was as close as we got.
Set 2: Our serve-receive was better, and Hanson, our only reliable hitter all night (besides Shaffmaster, 6 kills for the match) took over, 8 kills in Set 2 alone. (She finished with 22 for the match.) We led 7-4, 12-6, 15-9, 20 -13 and coasted to 25-18, looking like the superior team.
Set 3: Leading 9-6, our serve-receive problems re-surfaced, allowing the Illini to go ahead 12-17. But with McGhie serving and Wooker hitting her best stretch of the match, the Gophs roared back to a 20-18 lead, and coasted home.
Set 4: Like Set 3, but worse! Acevedo’s serve-receive, thought by Coach Cook to be better than Wooker’s, was so bad that Acevedo was replaced in our serve receive by Skylar Gray. (A desperate move?) And before long, we were down 6-16, and I, thinking the set hopeless, was hoping that we could at least regain some momentum going into an inevitable Set 5. But we chipped away at the 10-pt deficit, 10-16, 13-18, 16-20, 18-21, 20-22 and with Grote, who had done almost nothing all night, finally coming alive, we tied it up at 24-24! Illinin’s star hitter Raina Terry got a kill to give her team a second set-point, but then their server buried her serve in the net. Then, at match point, Acevedo, playing front-row for Wooker while Gray was playing back-row for her, got her only kill of the night. Sort of a weak kill, but we’ll take it.
Miscellania:
- As part of the relatively new Pro Volleyball Federation’s 2nd year of drafting college seniors, Lydia Grote was drafted by the Orlando Valkyries.
- Minatee continued her resurgence, with 9 kills, .667, and 6 blocks. I don’t know why she was M.I.A. for the last half of October and the first half of November, but it’s good to have her back.
- Palabiyik was our first server in all 4 sets, making Shaffmaster our last server. The strategy seemed to agree with Palabiyik, she was the only one of our 6 servers who did not commit a service error.
- Shaffmaster continues to fill up the score-sheet, tonight with 35 assists, 7 digs, 6 kills & 5 blocks.
- Shaffmaster can dink too, and Wooker has, in her third season, got good at it. The rest of our hitters, Hanson, Grote, Acevedo, Minatee and Awoleye, are terrible at dinking.
- I’ll have more to say about next year after this season ends. (Spoiler: we will ot win the NCAA Championship.) But we will have a stronger serve-receive next year.
UP NEXT: Senior Night at the Pav, Friday, vs Ohio State, FS1. We beat Ohio State in Columbus, after losing the first two sets. I’d be happy with less drama this time.