Maryland won Set 1 last week at #3 Penn State, and only lost Set 3 by 2 pts — but they were no more challenging tonight at the Pav, Gophers 25-21, 25-15, 25-18, than last night’s Hoosiers. Coach Cook felt so confident after burying the Terrapins in Set 2, that he played our #3 Middle Kali Engeman in place of Minatee in Set 3. It made me nervous when Engeman made a couple of mistakes and we were tied 13-13, but Cook stayed with Engeman and she redeemed herself with a couple of blocks.
Grote and Hanson had 12 kills apiece, 2 each from the back-row, and Awoleye had a ton of blocks. The Official Gopher Website Headline touts Awoleye with a Pavillion-record 14 blocks – but I had her with 9. Why the difference? When we put up a double-block, and it succeeds, the official stats give both players credit for a block. But using this system, they gave Grote 7, blocks, Hanson 5, and Wooker, Shaffmaster & Engeman 3 apiece and Minatee 1. That’s 36 blocks in 3 sets; what an incredible performance! Except we only had 19 blocks (still a good night). By either measure, Awoleye dominated the Terrapins.
Wooker again played the entire match (except that Acevedo serves for her). Her hitting totals were modest, 6 kills, but she also passed well. I had Wooker with 3 ”poor-receives” (zero official errors) , but she is clearly our second best receiver (after Palabiyik), so great to have Wooker back.
Speaking of having Wooker back, the Gophers stunk last week at Southern Cal, but we weren’t even close to healthy. When healthy, which we may be now, if Wooker is fully healthy, this squad beat Texas on a neutral court, beat Wisconsin at the Pav, and never lost a set (we weren’t healthy in our 5-set win at UCLA either) against 8 mediocre teams, along with losing four 5-setters to ranked teams. Not bad at all. (Important to stay healthy!)
NEXT UP:
Friday, Oct. 16, 6:00, at Rutgers, BTN+
Sunday, Oct. 20, at #3 Penn State, BTN+
Even on the road, we should sweep this weak Rutgers squad. Winning at State College won’t be easy, but Maryland came within a few points of the Nittany Lions. Right now, we’re 11 & 5 overall, 4 & 2 in the Big Ten; the odds are, that by the end of next weekend, we’ll be 12 & 6, and 5 & 3. But I think our chances of coming away 13 & 5 are better than our chances of coming away 11 & 7. (Odd, I think, that this top-15 matchup won’t be broadcast, at least on BTN.)