As you would expect them to. Northwestern is a competent D-1 Volleyball team, with some pretty good athletes, but they have not, in decades, been a serious threat to finish ahead of Minnesota in the Big Ten standings. The Wildcats are good, but we don’t expect the Gophers to have trouble with them, and tonight they didn’t, sweeping the Cats 25-20, 25-10, 25-14. As the score suggests, the Cats were competitive in the first set, never leading but hanging tough and within 3 at 18-21. But the Gophers won 4 of the next 6 points to close out the set, and the Cats never threatened again.
And yet, just 11 days ago, the Gophers escaped Evanston by the skin of their teeth in a 5-set win, 24-26, 19-25, 25-18, 31-29 & 15-7; a match in which the Cats had 4 match points in the 4th set; and a match the Gophers would not have won without 20 kills from Taylor Landfair. Who didn’t even play tonight.
WHY THE DIFFERENCE?
A couple of obvious things: 1) The Gophers play better at home, and the Cat’s presumably play less well on the road; & 2) In Evanston, the Gophs came out flat and let the Cats take a significant lead in the first set, and the Cats played with confidence the rest of the night – or at least until the 5th set.
Less obvious: Playing a Saturday Night match in Evanston following a Friday Night match in Madison, our best player, Steph Samedy was part of the coming out flat – as she would do again the following Saturday Night at East Lansing following a tough Friday Night match at Ann Arbor. The Gophers lean heavily on Samedy, and it seems to affect her on the 2nd night of back-to-back road matches. Tonight, by contrast, was a mid-week home game on 4 nights rest. This is not on Samedy; it’s what happens when you lean too heavily on one player. Samedy wasn’t especially dominant at the net tonight, 11 kills and 4 blocks, but she played well in the first set, hit steady all night, and she dug and passed well besides.
The BIG NEWS was the emergence of Shea Rubright as a major factor in the match. Rubright, a 6-5 Middle from Yakima, WA. had 5 kills and 6 blocks, all 5 of her kills coming on quick-sets from Shaffmaster. And she had a at least 2 other decent quicks that were dug up by the Cats, and at least 2 decent attempts on “slides” from Shaffmaster. And Myers added at least 4 kills, one of those on a slide. This was against Northwestern, not Wisc, Neb, or Penn St, but even so it was great to see the balance in tonight’s offense – and not needing to lean on Samedy.
The Gophers have essentially 3 Middles (4 if you count true-freshman Anna Wolf, who hasn’t seen much action), Myers, Rubright and Ellie Husemann. Last season, Coach McCutcheon seemed to have a hard time deciding who would be the “other” starting Middle opposite Regan Pittman, but by the end of the season, Rubright seemed to emerge as the strongest of the three. With Pittman gone, we need to play 2 of the 3, and lately it was mostly Myers and Husemann, with only the occasional appearance by Rubright. Tonight, Rubright was the dominant Middle the Gophers so badly need.
Another piece the Gophers desperately need is Taylor Landfair, the one player on this roster with even more potential than Samedy. Once again, Landfair was in attendance – in a warm-up jacket and dancing during breaks. But she did not participate in pre-match drills and did not see action. Reader D.S. knows somebody who knows somebody who says the problem is Landfair’s back. And backs, as we all know, are a mystery in themselves; Landfair might be 100% on Sunday vs Indiana – or she might not play again this season. Keep your fingers crossed.
Airi Miyabe played great in relief of Landfair, leading all scorers with 11 kills. I have previously described Miyabe as our “Super-Sub,” and she continues to demonstrate her value to this team. But if this squad is going to compete with the likes of Wisc, Neb, and Penn St, etc, we’re going to need Rubright playing the way she did tonight, and Landfair at 100%.
MISCELLANEOUS: Wenaas was steady in all aspects of the game, McGraw played well as we have come to expect, and I thought Kilkelly’s passing was especially good tonight. Shaffmaster disappointed me with a couple of unexplainably poor sets – but she did feed her middles better than she has all year.