The Gophers finished the in-state portion of their Spring season (they play Kansas State next week in Indianola, IA) with an unblemished record, 12 sets played and 12 sets won. St. Thomas, prepping for their 2nd season of D1 VBall, were clearly undermanned against a Gopher Team that I believe will be ranked in the Top Ten Nationally when the first poll comes out in August.
Blog Readers and Geezer Vballers J.B. & L.J. were with me at the Pav, as were granddaughters (and surely future VB stars) Peaches and Curly. The girls were particularly interested in the Gopher hairstyles, and the Geezers in the differences between Gopher & Geezer VBall. (#1 The Gophs move their feet; #2 The Gophs are “in-system” most of the time.)
Since last week’s match vs NDSU, I’ve been going back and forth a bit with Reader R.A. (who I don’t know), who was at the match in Lakeville. R.A. is a loyal reader who shares my passion for GopherVBall, and we mostly agree on the new squad, We disagree on redshirt freshman Lauren Crowl (R.A. likes her better than I do) and true freshman McKenna Wucherer (R.A. likes her less than I do).
So my main interest tonight was Crowl and Wucherer, and the related question of who will play the Opposite position for next fall’s squad. I conceded in last week’s blog that Crowl is the clear favorite; she’s the only athlete on the roster listed as “Opposite,” and she was clearly recruited as Samedy’s replacement. And when the season starts for real in late August, Crowl may well be on the floor as the Opposite.
But the Gophers revealed another option against the Tommies. Crowl played Opposite for 1 & ½ sets, but for 2 & ½ sets, the Gophers played with a Setter, 2 Middles, 3 left-side hitters (Wenaas, Landfair and Wucherer) and no real Opposite. In each pass through the front line, each left-side would hit left-side twice, and right-side once. This could be brushed off as silliness in a scrimmage vs a weaker team – except for two things:
- I believe that Wenaas, Landfair, Wucherer, plus Husemann and Booth are our 5 strongest front-row players; and
- It is similar to the system Coach McCutcheon employed before he had Samedy. The 2016 Gophers did not have a great Opposite, but they did have 3 strong Middles; Hannah & Paige Tapp & Molly Lohman, so McCutcheon used a Setter, 3 Middles, 2 left-side hitters and no real Opposite. And the 2016 Gophs went to the Final Four.
I’m not ready to say that the 2022 Gophers will run with Wenaas, Landfair, Wucherer and no real Opposite – but it could happen.