One night after dropping a 5-set match at to then-9th place Michigan at Ann Arbor, our Gophers squeezed past 12th-place Michigan State at East Lansing 22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-21. All 4 sets were close, but the Gophers, without Landfair, and with minimal contribution from Samedy, hung tough to win 3 of the 4 sets. The Spartans continued their recent pattern of playing competitive volleyball, but losing the close sets to higher-rated teams.
SET 1: Last night I missed the whole first set because BTN was broadcasting the end of the Nebraska-Penn State match. Tonight I missed a substantial portion of the first set – the Gophers were already behind 3-12 when I tuned into BTN+ at 5:55 for a match scheduled for 6:00 our time. What’s up with that?
But I see that these first 15 points included the worst stretch of the evening, maybe the worst stretch of the season, for the Gophers – who had been up 2-0 and then lost the next 9 points. Two errors by Shaffmaster and two errors by Samedy contributed to the Spartan run. The Gophers actually outplayed the Spartans from there, pulling to within 1 at 22-23, led by Miyabe playing in what I think of as Landfair’s position. But it was too little too late.
SET 2: Set 2 was as tight as the final score suggests, with ties at 9-9, 13-13, 16-16 and 22-22 before the Gophers finally prevailed. For a change, the Gophers got offense from somewhere other than the pins, as Shaffmaster had 3 kills and our Middle combo of Myers and Rubright had 6, including a “slide.” (Remember when the Tapp Sisters were nearly unstoppable on slides?)
SET 3: Much like Set 1, the Gophers dug a 4-9 hole. But this time, they rebounded more quickly, tying the Spartans at 13-13, pulling ahead 16-14 and 24-21, mostly behind Wenaas, with 5 kills in Set 3, and Miyabe with 4 kills.
SET 4: I mentioned to Maureen that Michigan State, on a tough-loss streak, might fold up in Set 4 — but they didn’t. The Spartans jumped out to leads of 9-6, 11-7, 14-9 & 17-12 before the Gophers, with Wenaas serving, ran 5 to tie it up; and finish it off at 25-21.
Interestingly, our left-side hitters Jenna Wenaas and Airi Miyabe led the way with 17 and 16 kills respectively, with 3 of Wenaas’ kills coming from the back-row – which prior to this evening almost never worked! The official box score shows Samedy with 11 kills. I only counted 6, so maybe she had a couple before I tuned in, and I must have missed a couple. (It’s BTN+, not the high-def picture we’ve become accustomed to.) 11 kills would be good for most hitters, but it constitutes an off-night for the leading hitter in the Big Ten.
As far as I know, Taylor Landfair did not play. I’ve seen nothing to explain her absence (she was on the bench), but I assume she is injured. Miyabe played wonderfully in her place – for Miyabe; who is good but not capable of dominating. And after being out-served last night by Michigan by a considerable margin, the Gopher servers were roughly the equals of the Spartans.
Another interesting development was when Coach McCutcheon twice subbed Bailey McMenimen in for Samedy for her trip through the back row. Normally, Miyabe subs in for Shaffmaster at the same time, making McMenimen the back-row setter and Miyabe the right-side hitter. But of course Miyabe was already in the game, filling in for Landfair. McCutcheon could have put Natalie Glenn in for Shaffmaster, but he instead left Shaffmaster in. Possibly, McMenimen was supposed to set, and Shaffmaster, who is certainly capable, was supposed to hit Right-side. But I think McMenimen was merely in as a Defensive Specialist, giving Samedy a rest.
One last note: before tonight, the Gophers have generated almost zero middle offense, and I have suggested that this was at least partly due to poor first-passes (making Shaffmaster chase the ball). I thought our passing was much better tonight, allowing Shaffmaster and our Middles to be more productive. Let’s hope we can keep this up against better teams.