I was torn between two headlines for today’s double-header of matches vs South Dakota State and Creighton.
“EXHIBITION EMBARRASSMENT” works to describe the Gophers losing both matches. I don’t mean to suggest that either of these teams were weaklings. SDSU, who beat us 25-18, 22-25 & 20-25 was last year’s Summit League Champ, and a NCAA Tournament Team. And Creighton, who beat us 18-25, 23-25 & 25-23 was the Big East Champ and an Elite Eight Team. Plus these were 3-sets-regardless exhibitions.
But I’m not accustomed to watching the Gophs demonstrate this level of futility. We dug great, we blocked well, and we served decent. But you can’t win a volleyball match without a little offense. And you can’t generate offense without Outside Hitters. Which is where ANYONE KNOW A LEFTSIDE HITTER? fits.
These matches didn’t count. The next match that will count isn’t until late August, at which time our Gophers will have, hopefully, have 3 potentially-powerful Leftsides competing for the 2 available positions, and maybe a powerful Opposite and at least one effective Middle besides. We had none of these today.
* Last year’s best player was First Team All Big Ten Leftside Julie Hanson. Hanson was in attendance today, and warmed up prior to both matches — but never played! No explanation provided.
* The Wooker, when healthy, has previously demonstrated the ability to dominate a D-1 Match. Wooker was in attendance — in street clothes! As she was last week. Wooker had back problems last fall, causing her to miss all of some matches and parts of others. I am hoping that she has had surgery on her back and is recovering.
* And the highly-rated Kelly Kinney is still in High School; obviously, she wasn’t there.
In their place, we used Acevedo (all 6 sets) and mostly Gilk (4 sets), sometimes Crowl (2 sets) at Leftside, and mostly Crowl, sometimes Schnickels at opposite. These 4 “hitters” played hard and generated a kill now and then, Acevedo probably the most. But I feel certain that if I had access to real stats, the collective hitting percentage of these 4 would be a negative number, i.e., more errors that kills.
Acevedo, who I think had the majority of kills, also had a ton of errors, mostly wide or long. Crowl, who had a good day blocking, had very few kills and about an equal number of errors. The Freshman Gilk, a left-handed Opposite, and perhaps our starting Opposite by the time we reach the Big Ten Season, looks like a fish-out-of-water at Leftside. And Schnickels, Minnesota’s Ms Volleyball of 2022, has simply not developed into the player I had hoped.
Our Middles blocked well, but provided little offense. Minatee and Myers played the first set of each match and were okay. Myers and Taylor played the second set of each match, and were no better. And Engeman played in both the third sets and was worse. I remain confident that our improved passing and setting will eventually lead to more Middle-Offense, but it wasn’t obvious today.
To add to our misery, Stella pulled a muscle, or cramped up, or something, but stayed in the game. Coach Cook did not seem tempted to put Georgia Lee in, and after her brutal performance last week, I can’t say I blame him. [Stella & Olivia’s mom was there, as she often is, and the younger sister who will be a senior at Wayzata next fall. And also Samantha! with what appeared to be a 3 year-old son.]
Maybe South Dakota State and Creighton were also deep into their bench? Not being super-familiar with either team, I couldn’t say. The Creighton players weren’t even wearing numbers.
The one highlight of the day was our digging. In addition to our having Junior Libero Palabiyik and our Junior D.S. Thibault both back from last year, we have a third Libero in the Freshman Garr, and Cook isn’t afraid to put all three of them in the back row at the same time. Thibault struggled with her serve-recieve a bit (based on the small sample I’ve seen, I’d put Garr ahead of Thibault ), but all three can really dig. Big Ten Teams will quickly learn not to waste their time dinking on this line-up. I mentioned last week that playing a Libero and two D.S.es puts a strain on the team’s subs-per-set limit; I will be interested to see if Cook is serious about this tactic.
At the end of the day, one key to a successful 2025 season will be getting at least two of Hanson, Wooker and Kelley healthy and playing well. If we can do that, I think everything else could come together.
NEXT UP: St. Thomas at the Pav, next Sat, April 12, 3:00 – FREE!