The Gophers barely broke a sweat beating Maryland in 3 sets, 25-13, 25-12, 25-16. Maryland came out tough in the 3rd set, taking an 8-7 lead over the somewhat casual Gophers — but then the Gophs got serious. Unlike Friday night’s 5-set grind over Michigan, the outcome of the match was never in question.
The big news was that junior Middle Ellie Huseman, who spent most of her first two seasons as a Gopher on the bench (behind Regan Pittman, of course, but also behind Katie Myers and Shea Rubright) played the best match of her Gopher career, with 9 blocks and 3 kills. A couple of her blocks came early in the 1st set, and may have taken the Terps out of their game plan.
Another item of interest was that sophomore Left-side Taylor Landfair played the entire 3-set match (not back row, of course), recording 8 kills and 2 blocks. Landfair’s stats weren’t that much different than those of Airi Miyabe (10 &1), who played that position against Michigan; but Miyabe (who I love) gets her kills by finding seams and changing angles, whereas Landfair gets most of her kills with raw, jaw-dropping power. She also had one fantastic power-dink – that’s where she threw the ball straight down inside the 10-ft line. (Illegal for most of us, but legal, like a Michael Jordan 3-step dunk, if you look really good doing it.)
And another item of interest was the dedication of Melani Shaffmaster (presumably at McCutcheon’s direction) at finding offense somewhere besides her corner hitters. Whenever possible, Shaffmaster fed quick-sets to her Middles, she sets slides (where the Middle hitter circles behind her – a play the Tapp Sisters were great at) to her Middles, she set Samedy and Wenaas in the back row, and she attacked 2nd-touch balls. Aside from setting Samedy back-row (often effective), Shaffmaster had limited success with these tricks, percentage-wise, but some success. I counted 2 quick-set kills, zero kills off the slide, 1 back-row kill by Wenaas and one by Landfair, and two 2nd-touch kills by Shaffmaster; so 6 kills out of maybe 25 or 30 attemps (I’m guessing here); probably a lower success rate than setting her corner hitters. (The Gophs hit .302 for the match.) And yet, maybe trying these other attacks now and then helped to keep the Maryland defense off balance.
BADGERS LAY AN EGG
Maryland opened their Big Ten season at home Friday night vs the #2 nationally ranked Wisconsin. I hadn’t seen a score, but there’s no chance that the powerful Badgers (and I’m not kidding, the Badgers deserved their ranking) would have any trouble with the Maryland team that played at the Pav this afternoon. But shockingly, the Terps took down the Badgers in 5 sets. I guess the Terps are better at home than on the road, but still??? Apparently, Wisconsin self-destructed, with 34 hitting errors and 17 service errors. Hard to imagine.
NEXT UP: At Wisconsin, Friday at 8 p.m., on BTN
GEEZER VOLLEYBALL IS BACK
This last note is of interest to a limited audience, and most of them already know it. But if you’re a guy, 55 or older, and free on weekday mornings (M/W/F), BAJ volleyball resumes, after a 5-month layoff, on Friday, 9:00 a.m. at Jefferson High. Contact me at jktrpp@gmail.com for information.