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+