Having lost their season opener to Long Beach State, the Longhorns were no longer #1 entering the Pav. But they were big enough and “bad” enough to spank the Gophers in 4 sets, 14-25, 25-23, 17-25 & 23-25. One could argue that the Gophers came close, in that Set 4 was tied at 23-23, and if the Gophs had pulled that out, who knows how Set 5 might have gone. OR, you could look at the overall score, 79 to 98 in favor of Texas, and conclude that it wasn’t close.
One could say that Texas earned the victory by hitting better, a success rate of .234 vs the Gophs .156. But I don’t think so. Keeping with that theme, maybe Texas served better, 10 aces versus 3 for the Gophs (they had the same # of service errors). But I don’t buy that either. Or you could flip that statistic and note that Texas received better, 3 errors vs 10 for the Gophs – but that’s also misleading.
Taylor Landfair committed 7 of the Gophers’ receiving errors – more than the rest of the Gophs and all of the Longhorns combined. And even that’s misleading, because the official scorer only assigns a serve-receive error for balls shanked unplayable; this stat doesn’t count Landfair’s 20 or so (I do not have an accurate count) poor receives, so poor that the Gopher hitters (including Landfair) were unable to mount an attack, essentially returning a free ball. There were a few poor receives by other players on both teams, but again, I think Landfair’s 27 failed or poor receives were probably more than the rest of the Gophs and all of the Longhorns combined. The Longhorns picked on Landfair without mercy, predominantly with short serves (I felt she did okay with long serves). Is that poor sportsmanship? No! This isn’t a church picnic, this is D1 volleyball; teams are supposed to serve at their opponents weakest passer.
And I think Landfair’s approximately 27 failed or poor receives was the difference in the match. To my eye, the serving and setting and hitting and blocking was about equal; it was Landfair’s receiving that made the score 79 to 98 in favor of Texas.
Am I saying it was all Landfair’s fault? No, I am not. At 6-5, Landfair was the tallest person on the court; taller than our Middles, and taller than the Texas Middles. And it is hardly a secret that tall players have trouble with short serves. I was about Landfair’s height, and during my competitive (double-B) career I was often the tallest player – and my teammates wouldn’t allow me to receive serve; when I was front row, they hid me at the net, and backrow I stood behind someone. But D1 is not bar-league V-Ball; we have a coaching staff. I do not understand why our coaching staff allowed Texas to pick on Landfair all night long. TCU and Baylor did the same thing and we got away with it; but Texas was too good.
And poor passing isn’t the only problem created by Landfair’s receiving struggles. Three matches into the season, The Wooker has 44 kills and a .261 success rate, vs Landfair’s 27 kills and a .103 success rate. Is that because Wooker is a much better hitter than Landfair? I don’t think so. Landfair can’t hit when she’s lying on the floor, and she can’t get her confidence up when she knows her receiving is hurting her team.
Landfair is the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year, and she deserved that award. But we are asking her to do too much.
Do we not have other options? The highly regarded (reportedly the #1 U-18 Libero in Europe this summer) Zevnep Palabiyik is on the bench in street clothes – apparently related to an eligibility issue (I do not understand the details). Hopefully, The eligibility issue will get straightened out soon, and hopefully Palabiyik will take over the D.S. position, and will reduce Landfair’s serve-receive responsibilities by half.
In the meantime, we’re playing Julia Hanson in the rotation spot where a D. S. would normally play. But Hanson hides behind Landfair in the receive; we use her exclusively as a backrow hitter. She’s very good at it; she had 4 kills and a .364 success rate in tonight’s match vs Texas, which are excellent numbers for a backrow hitter (far better than Landfair or Wooker from backrow). But Hanson had zero receive attempts – because we have her hiding behind Landfair! Who was killing us. Maybe Landfair is a better receiver in practice than Hanson (this would surprise me, but I’m not there), but when an opponent is consistently serving Landfair short, we should be positioning her forward and having Hanson take the long serves.
Here’s another way to look at it. Last year, Jenna Wenaas was our best serve-receiver, even better than CC McGraw. This year Wenaas plays for Texas – and Texas doesn’t let Wenaas receive! Presumably because they have 3 better receivers on the floor in most rotations. We can’t keep letting opponents pick on Landfair.
NEXT UP: At #8 Florida, Sunday, Sept 3. ESPNU