To be clear, our #11 Ranked 2025 Gophers swept our Gopher Alumni squad in 4 straight sets. I was expecting it to be closer, but I was also expecting current U.S. National Team member Steph Sammedy and current Puerto Rican National Team member Dali Santana to play. Which they did not. Hannah Tapp was dressed for the Alumni, and looked as fit as ever, but played sparingly. Samantha Seliger-Swenson-??? was on the Alumni bench, in sweats, apparently about 8 months pregnant.
In fairness to the Alumni, they came back from losing Set 1 and getting crushed in Set 2 to play the ‘25ers close in Sets 3 & 4. Looking good for the Alumni squad were Leftsides Sara Wilhite and Alexi Hart, Middle Tori Dixon (a bit heavier than I recall), Libero Dalialisa ?? and Setter Kelly Bowman. Other Gopher Alumni played with spirit and the squad was augmented with two “ringers” from the Puerto Rican National Team.
QUESTIONS AND MORE QUESTIONS
But only 9 days from the opening match of the ‘25 season, vs #9 Ranked Texas A & M, winning this historic exhibition was less important than gaining insight into the lineup choices Coach Cook has made – and still needs to ponder.
MIDDLE:
- Incoming True Freshman Jordan Taylor is the Real Deal! Fresh off leading the U.S. U-19 team to a Silver Medal at the World Games, she was absolutely the dominate player in today’s match. Consistently aggressive when on the court, Taylor will definitely be one of our 2 starters.
- Transfer (from Purdue) Lourdes Myers started the match and played well. Watching this, I was thinking that Myers would be our other Middle, but then
- Calissa Minatee, the lone “returner” of the trio, also played well.
- This could be the first season since the Tapp Sisters that we feel good about two Middles.
SETTERS:
- Red-shirt Freshman Stella Swenson is also the Real Deal! It’s too early to say if she will be as good as Samantha, but I think there’s a chance.
- Transfer back-up Georgia Lee played half of one set and looked better than she did during the Spring Exhibitions. Tough to recruit a strong player to sit on the bench and wait for Stella to get hurt, Lee is probably as good as we could expect.
- If it were me creating a Plan B, I’d think about a 6-2 using Lee and one of our 3 Liberos.
LIBEROS:
- No question that Zeyneb Palabyik will at least start the season as the starter, with
- The Junior Kate Thibault and true Freshman Mckenna Garr as D.S.s. (We may have reached our legal limit on McKennas on one team.)
- Also no question that we will sometimes see all three on the court at the same time.
OPPOSITE:
- Fifth year senior Lauren Crowl rode the bench for two years behind Steph Samedy, and two more years behind Lydia Grote. Crowl is a good volleyball player, capable of hitting, blocking, serving, and even the occasional dig, but she’s no Samedy and no Grote. Will this be her year? She played the first three sets this afternoon and looked good. Not Samedy/Grote GREAT, but Good. I feel certain that Crowl will be our starting Opposite in 9 days vs Texas A & M, and if she plays consistently as well as she did today, she will remain our Opposite through the season. There are options if Crowl does not deliver, and one of them is
- True Freshman Carly Gilk. What I saw today was what I saw during this past Springs exhibition season: Gilk seems less effective than Crowl at blocking, about equal to Crowl at hitting, and better than Crowl at passing.
LEFT-SIDES:
- Senior Julia Hanson was All Big Ten last year, and was named Pre-Season All Big Ten going into this season. There is no question that Hanson, our only legitimate back-row attacker, will be one of our two starting left-sides again this year.
- After that, I have no clue who will get the most playing time at left-side this season.
- Red-shirt Sophomore Alex Acevedo finished last season as a starting Left-Side, and she started and played the first two sets today, suggesting, perhaps, that Coach Cook sees her as our other starter. But she was inconsistent last year, and did not impress me today. She serves well, but she is a mediocre hitter (reader R.A. disagrees) and was less than mediocre at serve-receive. Even if she hits well enough to play a lot of front row, I cannot see her being a regular part of our serve-receive this year.
- The Wooker is back! Well, sorta. Two years ago, she was outstanding. Last year she was injured most of the season. She was great early last season – before the back injury. She didn’t help us sitting on the bench in sweats, and when she played, she wasn’t full-throttle. Today, she warmed up as if to play, but sat the first two sets. She played Set 3, but then sat again in Set 4. I thought she looked great, not vintage Wooker maybe, but better than Acevedo. The brief appearance, however, tells me she isn’t quite healthy.
- And the mix also includes the highly-rated True Freshman Kelly Kinney. Kinney was also a U-19 team Silver Medalist last month, where she contributed some, but not nearly as much as Taylor did. There is also the question of her best position. Though right-handed, she has played Opposite most of her career so far, and played as much Opposite as Left-side on the U-19s. But today, she played Left-side, and looked great in both of the sets she played. Kinney hit well, she blocked well, she served great, even better than Acevedo, and she is terrific on serve receive. We can’t deploy 3 Liberos in every rotation, and I think Kinney is probably the best receiver of all the hitters on the squad. Gilk is pretty good, Hanson, Wooker and Crowl have all improved from their freshman seasons, but I could see Kinney receiving her way into a six-rotation role by season’s end. That could be as our #2 Left-side because Wooker is not 100%, or maybe she ends up at Opposite instead of Crowl? I could be wrong, but I think Coach Cook played her at Left-side today knowing that Wooker may not be ready when the season starts, and he doesn’t trust Acevedo. If Wooker is healthy, Kinney might end up taking Crowl’s job.
Reader R.A,. weighs in: Gophs were nearly perfect against skilled alumni team.
Defense may have been the finest feature keeping play alive (Z and Katie, most memorably) — remarkable saves, including many last-second pancakes on good shots by alums, plus nearly flawless serve-receive and solid back row play by all, previously a problem. Serving was a new strength, several players having improved technique to deliver balls that dropped quickly, generating more aces than I recall in any prior matches. Few serving errors. Middles wowed with powerful slides, iron-curtain blocks, and kills that mostly dropped inside 10-foot line or hit the opponent. Hanson, Acevedo and Crowl were all very strong at the posts. The Wooker also did very well in what was surprisingly limited play ???
Stella lived up to early hype, both with spot-on sets and several quick kills like Melani delivered. I was especially impressed by one set as she fell off the side at the net and delivered a ball ALL THE WAY to the opposite sideline for an easy kill just above the net! I had wondered about preseason #11 ranking. Not anymore. Every indication ours is a very solid team with many good players. I was wowed.
Reader G.H. was shocked to see the Gophers at #11 in the pre-season poll. But I’m not. We’ll miss Shaffmaster’s leadership and we’ll miss Grote’s great Opposite play. But if Hanson plays like she did last year, if Wooker is healthy, and if our serve-recieve and setting is as good as I think it will be, this squad should definitely be better than last year’s 13 & 7 in the Big Ten. And at least a Sweet Sixteen team.
HOW ‘BOUT THOSE LYNX?
They have one legitimate superstar – who hasn’t played in several games – and they’re crushing the WNBA. I don’t want to take anything away from the outstanding play of this collection of nobody-else-wanted-ems, but coaching has got to be part of it.