There are a 8 Big Ten teams in the top 31 ranked teams in the country; Indiana is not one of them. Ten days ago, the Gophers swept the Hoosiers 25-15, 25-16, 25-21. But that was at the PAV, where the Gophers play better. No matter, the Gophers swept the Hoosiers 25-20 (the Gophers led this 1st set 24-16), 25-14, 25-16. Maybe one reason home-court didn’t help the Hoosiers was that attendance appeared to be under 100 – V-ball hasn’t caught on in Bloomington. As I write this, by comparison, I am watching Wisconsin at Nebraska – 8,100 seats plus 400 standing-room tickets sold-out.
The first 2 sets were all-Samedy, 6 kills in the first set and 7 kills plus 2 blocks in the second set, plus a bunch of digs. Between sets 2 & 3, the BTN announcer reported that Samedy was hitting over .600. I recently wrote that the Gophers are terrible dinkers, but Samedy is sort of the exception. Tonight, at least 4 or 5 of her match-leading 18 kills were “roll-shots,” i.e., full swings, but half-speed with a lot of top-spin.
The 3rd set was closer for a while, with the Gophers trailing 6-7 & 11-12 before getting serious. As I’ve said before, it is difficult (not impossible) to maintain intensity when you feel your opponent is no threat to beat you.
Other highlights:
- Wenaas had zero kills in the first set, 2 in the second and 5 in the third, when the Gophs fed Samedy less often, but her digging and serve-receives were great. Indiana served at Wenaas all night – with minimal success.
- Like most D-1 VB teams, the Gophers play a 1-5 with a Libero and a Defensive Specialist. This typically means that one Left-Side Hitter (in our case, Miyabe or Landfair) plays only front-row, replaced by the D.S. (Kilkelly) in the back-row; and the other Left-Side Hitter plays all 6 rotations. In recent seasons, our 6-rotation Left-Side Hitter was Adanna Rollins, now playing for Penn State. One of the reasons I wasn’t too upset when I heard that Rollins was transferring was that I felt she was an inconsistent hitter, and a mediocre back-row player. Wenaas is also an inconsistent hitter, but I think she is a much better back-row player than Rollins was.
- Myers had a good match, with 4 kills & 5 blocks. The BTN announcer referred to Rubright as the strongest offensive threat among the Gopher Middles, but I don’t see it. I counted 4 kills for Rubright (same as Myers), one on a slide and at least 2 on over-passes. I don’t want to discount slides or over-passes, a point is a point; but teams automatically try to avoid over-passes, an opponent capable of exploiting your over-passes doesn’t affect your defensive strategy the way quick-set kills by your opponent will. I’d like to see Rubright crush a few quicks.
- Shaffmaster also had a good match, with 36 assists (at least a couple of them one-handed), 10 digs, a couple of kills and a couple blocks. It helped that the Gopher serve-receive was strong – probably because the Indiana servers didn’t put much pressure on it.
READERS WRITE:
READER G.U. writes (re the loss to Penn St):
“Penn State seemed to get 2 blockers in front of every Gopher attack, compared to the Gophers only getting one most of the time.”
JOHN: Penn St. gets offense from their Middles (at least one of them), which makes it harder to double-block their pins.
READER G.C. writes (re the loss to Penn St):
“Blowing that lead late in the second set was awful. Then on top of that, we weren’t even able to extend it to 4 sets, at home. Our middles are virtually non-existent, so other teams are ready for our outside hitters.
We still have 6 ranked teams on the schedule. If the Gophers don’t figure something out, we could finish 11-9. Their strength of schedule should get them into the dance, but I certainly don’t see them going very far.
READER R.S. writes (re this blog):
“Your posts are too long. I didn’t sign up for a book club.”
NEXT UP: First-place Nebraska. Tied for first-place now, they just got swept by the Badgers in Lincoln.