Set 1: The Gophers looked like a Big Ten / Top 25 Team playing a Horizon League squad. UWGB had no defense for Julia Hanson, and even Owoleye was getting kills. The Gophs led 9-2 on strong serving by Acevedo, later 16-7, and coasted to a 25-16 win.
Set 2: The Gophers looked like a Horizon League squad. The Gophs played most of their starters, except for Engeman in place of Owoleye for the whole set, and Crowl for Grote halfway through. Engeman looked terrible, and Crowl looked like Crowl, i.e., she gets great swings, hits the ball hard, but never gets a kill. The Gophs trailed 8-10, were tied 16-16, before finally prevailing 25-21.
Set 3: Owoleye and Grote were back in, but Acevedo was in for Wooker — and was ineffective (except for strong serving). The Gophs started strong, leading 9-2, but fell behind 12-14 and 15-17, before a nice run (with Hanson serving) put the Gophs ahead 20-17, eventually winning 25-20.
I think there are at least two explanations for the relatively poor showing in Sets 2 & 3: 1) The Gopher bench isn’t real strong; and 2) Volleyball teams have trouble maintaining their intensity when they feel they are superior to their opponents.
Some things we never see at the Pav:
- During Set 1, Gopher servers frequently rejected balls they were handed to serve, and between sets, the Down Ref tested — and added to more air to the problematic balls.
- The Phoenix Swim Team about 30 young men, filled the bleachers at one end of the court, the end behind the Gophs during Set 1, mostly wearing bib-overalls (a few in jeans and Ts), cheering for their team. As Set 2 began, with the Gophs now facing these handsome boys (behind the Phoenix V-Ballers), the Swimmers stripped off their clothing except for their speedos, presumably intended to distract the Gopher Women (perhaps a third reason for poor play), and then
- In Set 3, produced an electric razor and began to shave each others bodies (a not-uncommon practice among competitive swimmers). In doing this (for reasons I cannot explain), they either unplugged the scoreboard, or blew the fuse, because the scoreboard went dead and was unusable for the rest of the match.
Those who know me well, know that I never travel without a speedo, and of course I was tempted to join them — but my speedo was in the car.
In addition to productive matches (vs a Horizon League squad) from Hanson (11 kills), Owoleye (7 kills in 9 swings) and Minatee (5 kills and 5 blocks), I was very impressed by Palabiyik – not only her 20 first-touch digs (maybe what you expect from your Libero in a 132-point match), but also her frequent second touch saves, many resulting in decent sets.