Let me start with an apology. I ended my post re the loss to Texas with “Up next: Gophs travel to Eugene,” completely forgetting yesterday’s match at #5 ranked Florida. My lame excuse is that I wrote that as we were driving north for a quick Boundary Waters trip, and had other things on my mind. I didn’t remember Florida until we got back, late last night.
Needless to say, I didn’t see the Florida match. I would love it if a reader or two who did see the match would forward their observations. That goes for the rest of the non-conference season, as I am unsure of being able to watch Stanford, Oregon, St. Thomas or Iowa State. (I don’t anticipate any such conflicts during the Big Ten Season.)
All I know so far is what I glean from the Gophers official site. The match was close in some sense; the Gophs did win the 3rd set, and the total score was Florida 97 – Gophers 87. Not horrible playing at #5 ranked Florida while “missing” both of our starting left-side hitters. I say both because Taylor Landfair did not play, presumably a continuation of what ever took her out of the lineup late in the Texas match; and Wenaas played but was ineffective.
As one would expect, the magnificent Steph Samedy did all she could to carry the squad, ranking up 31 kills on 71 attempts (an outstanding 380), and added 14 digs. And we got reasonable production from the bench, with super-sub Airi Miyabe, who started in Landfair’s spot, getting 6 kills and 9 digs; and Freshman Natalie Glenn getting 5 kills and 8 digs. (I can’t tell if Glenn subbed in for Wenaas or Miyabe; Can someone help me here?)
But, as best I can tell, there were also a couple of discouraging developments: * The Gators jumped out to early leads in every set, even the one we won; * And in a back-and-forth 4th set, which could have pushed the match to a 5th set, our Gophers led 23-22 – but couldn’t finish. Having not seen the match, I am reluctant to draw conclusions. But this seems a continuing pattern.
UP NEXT (really)
Our so-far-still-ranked Gophs travel to Eugene to play Stanford on Friday and Oregon on Saturday. (Both games broadcast on the PAC-12 Network; does anyone have access?) Both teams are ranked, probably higher than the Gophs when this week’s poll comes out, so there’s a chance that the Gophers could be flying home 1 & 5.