It is not shocking to think that the Gophers would eventually lose a match, and Lincoln seems a likely spot for it. But surprising that they lost in straight sets, and for Gopher fans, hard to watch. The 3rd set was competitive, tied often including at 20-20, exactly the type of set we have come to expect the Gophers to win. Except they didn’t.
ROLLINS: The most obvious explanation is that the Gophs were missing junior left-side and 6-rotation player Adanna Rollins. Rollins spent the match on the bench, not dressed for play, with a “non-covid illness.” Through the Gophers’ first 9 matches, Rollins had been occasionally dominant and occasionally a liability, but mostly solid and reliable, an important component of the Gophs’ excellent 9 – 0 start. Maybe more important than we realized.
WENAAS: Rollins was replaced, as one would expect, by freshman Jenna Wenaas. Wenaas arrived as the 3rd-rated recruit in the country, who until now had seen limited playing time, and most of that subbing into the back row during McGraw’s absence. I had previously speculated that it might be hard to keep a player as highly-regarded as Wenaas happy on the bench for long.
Wenaas passed very well, including 21 serve-receives without an error (arguably better than a typical match by Rollins). Wenaas’s hitting was mediocre, 4 kills and one error in 21 attempts, compared to Rollins’ 20 kills in the 4-set match on Friday. And her serving was horrible, 3 service errors and no aces in 7 attempts.
It would be easy to ask, “Well, who are our other options at left-side?” But Wenaas is a freshman, playing a critical role in her first collegiate match – against Nebraska at Lincoln. She did not perform as well as Rollins usually does, but we shouldn’t have expected her to. And perhaps the bigger problem was the failure of her teammates to step-up, knowing that they now had 3 freshmen (inc. Landfair and Shaffmaster) in the line up against a quality team that hardly ever loses at home.
WEAKNESSES REVEALED: Flaws that the Gophers have gotten away with in their first 9 matches haunted the Gophers all day:
- 8 service errors (vs 0 aces) in 56 serves;
- Consistently poor (except for Wenaas) serve-receive, making Shaffmaster chase all over the court for the 2nd touch;
- Poor blocking, especially by our 3 freshman. Wenaas at 6-1, Shaffmaster at 6-3, and Landfair at 6-5, obviously have the height to become great blockers, and I think they will over the next 4 years – but none were effective in this match.
- Trouble covering dinks by the opposing team. I haven’t felt, at any time during the McCutcheon era, that the Gophers as a team were especially good at dinking, or covering dinks. (It has occurred to me that this is philosophical – “If we swing away and the other side dinks, we’re going to win most of our matches.”) But when we’re getting out-served, out-received, out-hit and out-blocked, out-dinked makes everything worse.
OTHER INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES
- Samedy had 12 kills in 37 swings, a productive rate for most mortals, but with an uncharacteristic 7 hitting errors. Maybe she’s not a “morning person.”
- Landfair led the Gopher hitters for the first time (I’m guessing not last) in her career, with 14 kills and 4 errors in 30 swings. She hasn’t figured out how to block Big Ten hitters yet, but she is already, even as a freshman, the best dinker on the team. And with the Gophers, in Rollins’ absence, setting up their serve-receive a bit differently, Landfair was targeted all day by Nebraska servers, and handled herself well.
- BENCH During the horrible 2nd set, McCutcheon used his double-switch of McMenimen in for Samedy and Miyabe in for Shaffmaster – didn’t hurt, didn’t help. And he played Myers at the “other middle” in the 3rd set. I didn’t notice Myers having much impact, but the 3rd set was the closest.
SPLIT NOT SO BAD Easy to feel discouraged about today’s straight-set disaster. But if someone had told me, before the season started, that the Gophs would be 9 & 1 at this point, after 2 matches at Purdue, 2 matches at home against Penn State, and 2 matches at Lincoln – I’d have been thrilled. If the Gophs can get even a split in our mid-March home-and-home with Wisconsin, and take care of business against Ohio State, I think they are a lock for a top-4 seed in the NCAAs.
UP NEXT: Double matches vs Michigan (Mich off to a slow start) at the Pav; Friday at 4:00 on ESPNU, and Saturday at 4:00 on BTN+. Also on Friday & Saturday next week: Nebraska at Wisconsin, both on BTN. That should be interesting!