The Gophers play at Maryland this Friday at 7:30 (BTN) and Saturday at 5:00 (BTN+), subject to change as always. I did figure out how to get BTN+ on my TV, as did at least some other readers of this blog. I’m no techie, but if you call me (612-724-7620) I can share how I and others did it.
The Terrapins are led by #9, senior left-side hitter Erica Pritchard, a pre-season All-American (an honor shared with the Gophers’ Sammedy and Pittman), but they are also excited about their highest-rated recruitment class in school history, including highly-rated setter #8 Sidney Dowler. Maryland opened their season last week at Ohio State (where the Gophers have occasionally struggled), battling but eventually losing a pair of 5-set matches.
An interesting story-line will be the return to College Park (a D.C. burb, I think) of now-Gopher Graduate Student (a junior, in terms of eligibility) Katie Myers, who led the Terps in blocks last year. I do not have any insider knowledge of Myers’ thinking (academics, maybe?), but I’m guessing that she thought that being a contributor on a potential Final Four Gopher Team sounded like more fun than being the star of good-but-not-great Terrapin Team. Let’s hope her return proves successful.