Texas, ranked #1 most of the season and the #1 seed in the tournament, beat Louisville for the National Championship with relative ease, 25-20, 25-14, 26-24 (total score: 76-58). They beat San Diego in the Semis in 4 sets, 26-28, 25-16, 28-18, 25-20 (total score: 101-82). Both matches on a neutral court. The Gophers lost to Texas in Austin, in August, 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 22-25 (total score: 98-85). The Longhorns lost at Iowa State, in 5 sets, but other than that, the Gophers gave them as much trouble as anyone. (If we hadn’t had those inexcusable losses to Northwestern and Pepperdine, we would surely have gotten a better seed, and maybe it would have been the Gophers in the finals – losing to Texas.
Texas had a clear size-&-power advantage in tonight’s Texas-Louisville match, at times over-powering Louisville with their blocking. If that had been the only volleyball one had watched all year, it would be easy to assume that the bigger stronger team always wins. Texas’s advantage was even greater in the semis against San Diego, who was playing a 5-1 with a 5-9 setter; Gabby Blossom, a grad-transfer from Penn State (I think all 4 Final-Four Teams had transfers in their starting line-up) is a terrific setter, and a strong server, but Texas mercilessly took advantage of her deficiency as a blocker.
The Gophers would have matched up even with the Longhorns in size-&-power, so why weren’t we there? The obvious difference was the passing. The Longhorns were probably no better than the Gophs in-system – but they’re in-system more often because their passing is better. They also served more aggressively than we do. Some GopherVBallRocks readers panic if the Gophs have 8 or 9 service-errors in a match, but the Longhorns had 11 service-errors tonight, and 10 last night, against only 4 aces & 3 aces – and it didn’t seem to bother them. I’m convinced that teams have to serve aggressively to win at this level — and accept a higher percentage of service-errors.
Another difference (vs the Gophs) that I noticed was the variety in their attacks. Texas and Louisville seemed to have a distribution of sets to Left-side, Right-side, Middle & Back-row similar to the Gophs (I don’t think San Diego had a back-row set all night). But, Texas’s and Louisville’s sets to their outside hitters weren’t always to the pins; they were often (and seemingly by design) 6 to 8 ft in from the pin. I’d like to see the Gophers use this tactic more often. Maybe next year.
Being a 21st Century kind of guy, I am of course more interested in a young woman’s character, intellect, and V-Ball skills, than in her appearance. But many GopherVBallRocks readers (and not all men) have noted how many attractive young women play volleyball. So solely out of obligation to my readers, I take note of this. Certainly the Texas & Louisville lineups were loaded with attractive young women – more so, I thought, than the teams they vanquished in the semis.
Volleyball broadcasters trend attractive also, and ESPN’s lead interviewer Katie George did not disappoint. But their “analyst,” Hollie McPeak, formerly an international Beach Volleyball Star, was an exception. My guess: All those years in the sun are hard on a girl’s complexion.
THE TRANSFER PORTAL
The Transfer Portal will be absolutely critical to the success of the 2023 Gopher Volleyball Team. We need to minimize the loss of our stars, of which we have several. And we need to find a top-notch Libero; McGraw is out of eligibility, and the top-notch Libero recruit we had lined up, defected to Nebraska. We really need 2 top-notch Liberos, one to play D.S., and we could us a Middle, even if Booth & Davis are back (we do have a Middle recruit).
I wanted to give GopherVBallRocks readers a scoop, but turns out it’s a secret portal; the list of athletes who are in the portal is apparently available to the coaches of teams one would like to transfer to, but it is not public – until the athlete chooses to make it public. The end point of the portal is May 1, but there is no real start date – so there could be Gophers in the portal already. I sure hope none of our stars are in it.