The Boilermakers swept the Gophers in West Lafayette two weeks ago, and tonight, after losing Set 1, rolled off 3 more sets, 25-17, 22-25, 18-25, 17-25. It was a hard-fought match, with many long voleys and relatively few long point-runs. But Purdue won 3 of the 4 sets played tonight, and 6 of 7 this season. Hard to argue with Purdue being the better team.
The key to the Set 1 victory was that the Gophers never trailed – partly because strong serving by the Gophs, especially by Shaffmaster, made it hard for Purdue to run their offense. The Boilermakers took their first lead of the match early in Set 2, and while the Gophers hung tough late into the set, they never quite caught up. Set 3 & Set 4 were both tied at 10-10, but both were dominated by Purdue after that.
NOTES:
In tonight’s match, the 23rd of the season, Coach Cook managed his roster, for the first time all season, in a way that resembles the way most teams use their roster:
- After 3 rotations in the front row, Opposite Lydia Grote served, and was then replaced by –
- Zeynep Palabiyik for 2 ½ rotations. And
- After 3 rotations in the front row, Leftside McKenna Wucherer (“The Wooker”) subbed out briefly while Julia Hanson served, then
- When Hanson lost her serve, Wooker came back in but –
- Did not receive serve while Palabiyik was on the court,
- Wooker did receive serve when Grote was on the court and Palabiyik on the bench.
In other words, the Gophers played a 5-1 with a Libero and a D.S. (Palabiyik), just like 95% of high school and collegiate volleyball teams. Though we lost to Purdue, I assume this will be the system going forward. Why we waited until the 23 match of the season remains a mystery to me.
Another plus was Taylor Landfair, always one of the three Gophers receiving serve, employing a new tactic tonight – which seemed a significant improvement. All season, Landfair had been lining up 22 to 25 ft off the net, and struggling to bump low/short serves. Tonight, she was lining up 18 to 20 ft off the net, and taking the high/long serves overhand. This wasn’t always pretty, but I had her with only 2 receiving errors for the match, less than half of her typical performance. And Wooker, the other “black hole” of Gopher receiving, was receiving only half as often. (I had Palabiyik with 1 serve-receive error for the match, in roughly a dozen attempts.)
The difference seperating Purdue from the Gophers: Both teams have big-time hitters and big-time blockers, leading both teams to “dink” fairly often. Either the Boilermakers are really good at dinking, or the Gophers, except for Murr, are really bad at covering dinks. I wasn’t keeping track, but it felt like roughly a dozen of Purdue’s 92 points came off dinks. Meanwhile, the Gophers are mostly poor at dinking. Landfair and Shaffmaster are decent at it, but Wooker and Grote and Davis and Owoleye are terrible dinkers, I had Landfair, Shaffmaster and Grote with 1 point each off of dinks – in about 20 tries, compared to roughly a dozen for Purdue, I never felt the Gophers were effective dinkers under Coach McCutcheon either. I don’t know why.
Lastly, I want to recognize the beautiful saxophone-duet National Anthem before the match, a tenor and an alto I think (but what do I know?) It was a real treat.
NEXT UP: Indiana at Indiana, Sunday at Noon, on BTN+. Indiana has an identical 8 & 7 record as the Gophers do. This is a critical match if the Gophers want to make the NCAAs.
STATE TOURNAMENT
I made it to the Xcel on Thursday for the 4A Semis (and Consolation semis), and the 2A Quarters. The main attraction of the 4A Semis being the Swenson Sisters (3 of them) Wayzata team destroying the competition. They swept Edina in Wednesday’s Quarters, they swept Anoka in Thursday’s Semis, and they are very likely to sweep New Prague in Saturday’s Finals. Rogers, who finished the regular season rated #3 in the State, might have given Wayzata a match on Thursday – but they somehow lost to a mediocre Anoka Team in the Quarters. New Prague has a nice club, including one very talented Middle, so they could push Wayzata to a 4th set, but I can’t see them beating Wayzata.
My thoughts re Stella, a 6-1 Setter and Olivia, a 6-3 Leftside Hitter, both “committed” to playing for the Gophers next year, haven’t changed much based on what I saw Thursday:
- Stella is a two-time Minnesota Player of the Year, and the real deal. I saw Samantha who went on to be a 3-time All American for the Gophers when she was playing for Hopkins High, and Stella looks just like her. My hope is that the 2024 Gopher roster includes Stella Swenson and Melani Shaffmaster. But if Shaffmaster is not on next year’s roster (for whatever reason), I am not worried about the Gophers having a quality Setter.
- I don’t know about Olivia. She also made the Strib’s All-Metro Team, is a powerfully-built young woman, and a powerful hitter. I don’t see her pushing Landfair or The Wooker, out of the lineup, assuming that they are both on next year’s roster. But I could see her becoming a starter for the Gophers down the road. The Strib article described her as an excellent passer – but she is not always part of Wayzata’s serve-receive, which seems to contradict this.
The level of play in the 2A Tournament is similar to the 4A Tournament in terms of both individual and team skills; the main difference is the size and power of the players. 4A teams run around 6 ft at Outside Hitter and around 6-2 at Middle; 2A Tournament-teams can have a big girl here and there, but they can also run as short as 5-6 at Outside Hitter and as short as 5-8 at Middle. Except for Caledonia. I don’t know if Caledonia has the quickness or depth to play with 4A teams, but they have the size and power. I think that Caledonia is also a perennial football power among smaller schools – must be something in the water down there.
Accustomed as I am to watching Big 10 V-Ball, where the officiating is pretty good, High School officiating often bugs me. The officials at the Tourney are supposed to be the best H.S. officials around, and most of them are pretty good – but not all. The older guy reffing Thursday’s Pequot Lakes / Redwood Valley match was calling completely imaginary violations – especially against Pequot Lakes. PL had a Leftside Hitter who consistently set up deep off the net, but she often got sets that were too close and/or too flat, causing her to “push” the ball over the net. They weren’t lifts, they weren’t throws, but this ref repeatedly whistled her for something – including on consecutive points that gave Redwood Valley a 25-23 win in Set 1. This threw PL off their game, leading to a slow start in Set 2, PL did not recover quickly enough and found themselves down 0-2. But PL got it together and came back to dominate Sets 3,4, & 5 and advance. (As they deserved to.)