Almost all the way through Set 1, spotting Highpoint U to a 16-23 lead. The Gophers woke up, with Murr serving, to get within 2, before losing Set 1, 22-25. The Gophs eventually won in 4 sets, 22-25, 25-11, 25- 20, & 25-17. If you count the end of Set 1, all of Set 2, and 7-1 start in Set 3, that was a 38-14 run. Theoretically, Highpoint might have been playing above their pay-grade (literally, under the new rules), but I don’t think so. Though the match started at 7:00, the Gophers did not appear ready to play until nearly 7:30. Especially their serving; 1 ace and 5 service-errors during that slow start. (The Gophs finished the match with 12 aces vs 9 serve-receives, which isn’t bad.)
Landfair started especially slow. her stats in Set 1: 1 kill (on a dink), 1 ace, 1 block, 2 service-errors, and 4 receiving errors. In fact, through the first 3 sets, Landfair had 2 dink-kills, 1 back-row kill, 1 right-side kill, and zero left-side, power-kills. She finally got going, with 4 kills in the first half of Set 4, and then she hurt her back in a collision with Murr, on a dig attempt. (Hanson, who was already in the game, playing back-row for Grote, took over as left-side hitter, and Crowl subbed-in for Landfair. The Gophers used a two-person-receive in one rotation.) Landfair received minimal medical attention, and did not appear to be seriously injured.
After struggling to receive serve in Set 1, Landfair was mostly not lined up to receive serve the rest of the match. Hanson took over toward the end of Set 1, and off & on afterward, and Zeynep Palabiyik (apparently now eligible), made her Gopher (and American) debut in Set 2. It was not a great start, Palabiyik looked nervous and did not impress, individually; but the Gophs played a lot better in Set 2..
After the slow start, the Gophers were especially dominant when Murr was serving. Murr deserves credit for serving well, but a lot of the credit goes to the strong play of our front-row in front of Murr: The Wooker at left-side, and Grote at Opposite contributed 15 & 13 kills, respectfully, and Owoleye and Grote contributed 4 & 3 blocks, respectfully; definitely our best rotation, as it often has been. I’m not ready to call Grote the second-coming of Steph Samedy, but she looks great so far.
Other notes:
- For the match, including the poor start, Minnesota out-hit High Point .281 to .069.
- Our Gophers have been vulnerable to opponents dinking on us in recent years, but I thought Shaffmaster did a nice job of digging HP’s dink-attempts. Shaffmaster’s comfort-level with Murr might be a factor.
- I’ve previously noted that Wooker is much more willing to attack an imperfect set than, Landfair, for example. She showed that tonight, getting a kill on a set inadvertently 15 ft off the net.
- Davis, absent from the lineup during the Gophers last 3 matches, started (3 kills in 3 sets). Minatee played Set 4, when the Gophs appeared to have the match under control.
NEXT UP: #14 Ranked Creighton at the PAV, 4:30 Saturday afternoon.