Our Gophers swept Baylor 25-20, 25-21, 25-11. Still not knowing if the glass is half-full or half-empty, and watching the Gophs drop last night’s Set 1 to unranked TCU, I was genuinely worried about tonight’s match with #15 Baylor. (The Strib’s Jeff Day described the Gophs’ performance as “lackadaisical.” Not a term I would have used; my guess is that Day hasn’t watched enough volleyball to understand that it’s a game of momentum.)
I wouldn’t say I panicked, exactly, but giving Baylor an 0-3 lead in tonight’s Set 1 didn’t help my confidence either. But I was wrong to worry; the Gophers pulled ahead 5-4, and never trailed by more than 1 point the rest of the match. By Set 3, Baylor looked eager to get to the bus. (Wisconsin rolled over TCU as expected; not a good weekend for the Texas teams at the Pav.) “The Wooker,” with 16 kills vs TCU added 14 more vs Baylor, earning the Big 12 Challenge MVP Award.
Other things I was wrong about:
- In my “Setting the Lineup” post from Wednesday, I told you that Crowl would be pushed by Grote, but likely emerge as our Starting Opposite. Then last night I reported that Grote took the floor for Set 1 of the season opener and dominated, with 6 kills in Set 1, and 11 for the match. (Crowl played briefly, in the 6-2, no kills.) So obviously Grote is our Starting Opposite. And Grote started tonight vs Baylor. But Grote was benched, with no kills, halfway through tonight’s Set 2, in favor of Crowl, who racked up 7 kills in a set and a half. (Grote played briefly, in the 6-2, and earned 2 kills, but this was after Baylor had thrown in the towel.) Best guess: we have two talented Opposites and, at least for now, Coach Cook will ride the hot hand.
- In my “Setting the Lineup” post from Wednesday, I told you that our Middles were weak, and last night’s match vs TCU confirmed this, 4 kills and 4 blocks combined, in 4 sets. Not good. And this story mostly continued through tonight’s first two sets. Then suddenly, in Set 3, our Middles woke up (4 kills combined, 6 for the Match), and Owoleye dominating the set with her blocking – 10 for the night, 6 in Set 3. So dominate, that #15 ranked Baylor finished the match with a Hitting % of .000. (For the uninitiated, Kills minus Errors divided by Attempts equals Hitting %; so, tormented by Awoleye, and the Gopher digging (Murr mostly, but also Wooker Shaffmaster and Landfair), Baylor had as many errors as kills.
Things I was right about:
- Our serve-receive sucks, especially without a real D.S. (I think Palabiyik will eventually be our D.S., when her eligibility gets cleared up). Hanson has filled the D.S. position these first two matches – and played very well! But she’s not part of our serve-receive. I saw Murr becoming increasingly assertive, which is good, but both TCU and Baylor have had success serving at Landfair, and future opponents are likely to follow this strategy. It’s not that Landfair is a terrible passer, she isn’t; but when they pick on her over and over, she does make errors. And I worry that receiving errors will get in her head and affect her offense.
- In my “Half-full or Half-empty” post from a week ago, I said that “the Gophers might have the best pair of Left-Side Hitters in the country.” It is still too early to be sure, but their combined performance these first two matches have done nothing to make that analysis look bad. So far, it’s been more Wooker than Landfair, but my guess is that this will even-out over the season. And it could be that first two opponents were focussing more attention on Landfair – which will also even-out. But I will say, Landfair looks timid at times; Wooker never does.
NEXT UP: The Big, Bad, #1 Texas Longhorns, on Tuesday.