Our Gophers lost their season opener in a VERY close match, to a VERY good team. I say very close because 10th ranked (but probably under-ranked) Baylor won the 1st set 26-24, the Gophs dominated the 2nd set 25-16, Baylor dominated the 3rd set 25-17, and Baylor took the 4th set 28-26. Two of the 3 sets that Baylor won were in overtime, and the total score for the match was Baylor 95, Gophers 92.
HIGHLIGHTS: * Jenna Wennas, in her debut as a left-side hitter, had 12 kills, 9 digs, two blocks, and two aces. It does not appear that the Gophers are going to miss Adanna Rollins. (I’ll have more to say about Rollins and her decision to transfer in a future post.) * C.C. McGraw appeared back at her performance level of two years ago; and * Steph Samedy, the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year does not appear to have lost a thing, racking up 21 kills, 18 digs, and 2 blocks.
LOWLIGHTS: * Last season (last Spring) the Gophers seemed, at least early in the season, to have an extra gear that kicked in when sets or matches were tight. But in the decisive 4th set against Baylor, the Gophs led 18-15, 21-18, and 24-20, before blowing 5 set points. A good team plays a lot of close sets; a great team wins the close ones. * The Gophers generated almost zero offense from their Middle Hitters (dare I call them Hitters?). Outside hitters Samedy, Wenaas and Landfair recorded 43 kills on 126 swings; while our Middles, Myers, Husemann and Rubright recorded 8 kills on 19 swings. And the 8 kills on 19 swings stat is misleading; I don’t have hard data, but my perception, watching on TV, was that more than half of the kills and more than half of the swings came on overpasses. In other words, Baylor set our Middles more often than Shaffmaster did. The Gophers compensate for their lack of a middle-attack by repeatedly setting Samedy and Wenaas out of the back-row – with some success. But the Gophers are not going to beat good teams without some offense from our Middles. * Our serve-receive, like last year, was mediocre. I assume Shaffmaster is willing to set our Middles when she gets a perfect pass, but middle-sets are tough when she is running all over the court to get the ball. * Landfair played okay, but seemed a little tentative to me, like she was early last season. I don’t expect Landfair to dominate every set like Samedy does, or like Samedy’s Baylor-counterpart Pressley. But Landfair was the tallest and strongest Outside hitter in that match – and will be in almost every match. She has the tools to dominate a set, and we saw her do that last Spring, especially toward the end of the season. We need her to do that consistently.
WHAT DID WE LEARN? * We learned that this is a good team, certainly a team with at least Sweet-16 talent. * We learned that this team has a long way to go to become the Big Ten and NCAA Champions we want them to be. * We also learned, as predicted, that Jen Wenaas is our 3rd Outside Hitter, and a pretty good one – maybe even better as she gains confidence. * We did not learn where our middle offense is going to come from, or even who our Middle Hitters are. Coach McCutcheon started Myers and Husemann, and later subbed-in Rubright (who had been injured). Freshman Middle Anna Wolf did not see action. * Freshman Outside Hitter Natalie Glenn did see action, but only as a server, not as a hitter.
TCU TONIGHT, AGAIN AT MADISON (BTN)