Minimal drama at the PAV last night as the Maroon & Gold demolished the Maize & Blue, 25-9, 25-17, 25-18. At least so far in ‘23, we have not seemed competitive with the truly elite teams of Women’s Collegiate Volleyball, but our #13 ranked Gophs are a lot better than the hopeless Wolverines. The Gophers were swept st Nebraska, but the total score was 65-75; last night’s win was 75-43! And the Gophers subbed liberally in Set 3.
Though still failing to produce an effective middle-offense (Owoleye had 3 kills, but 1 was off an overpass), everything else was clicking:
- As one would expect, our outside hitters led the way. The Wooker had 10 kills, Landfair 9 (at a .381 clip), the two of them basically matching the Michigan Team totals (20). Grote added 5, Hanson 2 from the back-row, and Shaffmaster got 3 (in 4 attempts). We hit .287 vs .023 for Michigan.
- We served well. I had the Gophs with 11 Aces (officially 8, but I count serves that result in over-passes as “aces”), spread around 6 servers, vs 12 service errors – a ratio I’ll take any day. The freshman Palabiyik served for the “other” middle (Murr is only allowed to serve for one) and had 2 aces.
- We blocked okay; 9 (5 by Owoleye) vs Michigan’s 20 kills.
- We even received well, only 2 official receiving-errors for the match – none by Landfair! Landfair had a couple of “poor” receives, but even those were off-set by 2 very-good digs off Michigan spikes. Landfair’s best back-row match of the season, by far.
TONIGHT: #15 ranked Penn State at the Pav, 8:00, BTN, should be a better test of how good the Gophers are.