For the 2nd straight match (since Coach McCutcheon dropped his bombshell, let’s hope these two things are unrelated) freshman Middle Carter Booth was a literal no-show, nowhere to be seen. Senior Middle Ellie Husemann, who had dropped from top Middle on the Gopher depth chart to third-best Middle stepped in – and was unproductive, with 1 kill and 1 block through the first 2 sets – a virtual no-show. And usually reliable Jenna Wenaas, who I have proclaimed the best all-around player on the team, was another virtual no-show – as a hitter, with 3 kills and 5 hitting errors through the first 2 sets. (Wenaas played well, as usual, in the back row.)
And yet our Gophers beat the Boilermakers in 4 sets, 27-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-19.
A late comeback in Set 1 the key to the match. Infuriatingly, the Gophs trailed by 4 to 7 points all the way through Sets 1 and 2, before mounting furious late rallies. In Set 1, we trailed by 7 mid-set, by 17-22 and 21-24 – and I had visions of a repeat Purdue sweep. But 2 Landfair kills, a block by Naya Gros and 3 Boilermaker errors allowed the Gophs to win the first set. In Set 2, we trailed 5-10, 14-19, and 15-22 before another furious rally cut the lead to 23-24. Too little, too late, but it seemed to provide momentum into Set 3.
Husemann and Wenaas had both contributed to the Gophs falling behind in Sets 1 & 2. Generally, during his tenure as Gopher Coach, McCutcheon has show great loyalty to his first string players. But late in Set 2, he subbed Arcia Davis in for Husemann, and Lauren Crowl in for Wenaas at Opposite. It wasn’t obvious to me that Davis or Crowl were responsible for the late rally – but McCutcheon stuck with each in Set 3.
In Set 3, it was the Gophers who took early leads, by as much as 9 points, and at 18-11 – before the Boilermakers stormed back to within 23-21. But the Gophs held on. Set 4 was tight most of the way, with the Gophs leading 10-8 and 15-14. But then the Gophs won 10 of the next 15 points.
And Davis and Crowl contributed significantly. Crowl ended up with 7 kills and 2 blocks, and Davis had 3 kills and 3 blocks, in both cases exceeding their previous season totals in just 2 sets. Another factor that made a big difference, at least in my mind, was that Shaffmaster started attacking. I have previously stated my goal of having her attack 2 balls per set, but she had zero attacks during Sets 1 & 2. Then she started swinging and got 3 kills on 5 swings over Sets 3 & 4. The 7 kills from Crowl, 3 from Davis and 3 from Shaffmaster, plus 8 from Naya Gros (spread across 4 sets) were enough to take the weight off of our left-side hitters Landfair and Wooker, who had 21 & 16, respectively.
In some sense, the match was a contest between Landfair and Purdue’s outstanding freshman Eva Hudson. Their personal kill contest see-sawed back and forth all night, ending up tied at 21 (both had several back-row kills as part of their totals). No Boilermaker got close to Wooker’s 16.
The natural favorite shot of most left-side hitters is the long-diagonal, but the Boilermakers were taking that away from Landfair most of the night. So Landfair switched to “sharp cuts” (balls hitting just inside the far sideline around the 10 ft line); she must have had 5 or 6 of those, and “line-shot” (balls hit straight down the near sideline) she must have had 3 or 4 of those.
No dinks for Landfair tonight – or any other Gopher. We tried dinks often, but I don’t think we scored on any. Meanwhile (I wasn’t counting them), it felt like the Boilermakers scored at least a dozen dinks against the Gophs. (An all-too familiar story.) But the Gophs outhit the Boilermakers overall, .263 to .160. The blocking ended up even, at 12 a piece. The Boilermakers had a slight advantage in serving, but neither aces or missed serves played a big factor. As expected, the Boilermakers targeted Landfair every chance they had, a total of 31 times. And Kilkelly second most at 20 times. No one who has read the scouting report wants to serve at McGraw or Wenaas if they can help it.
With the win, the Gophers, now 7 & 3 in the BigTen, push past the Boilermakers, now 6 & 4 into 4th place. Someone on BTN recently sized up the BigTen as the Big Three (Nebraska at 10 & 0, Ohio State at 9 & 1, Wisconsin at 8 & 1) and 8 other teams fighting for NCAA bids. But if you imagine for a moment that it’s really the Big Four, including the Gophers, and look at the Big Four’s records against each other, the Gophers are 1 & 1, with a win over Wisconsin and a loss to Ohio State, the Buckeyes are also 1 & 1, with a win over Minnesota and a loss to Nebraska, and the Badgers are 0 & 1, the loss to the Gophs. The Huskers are 1 & 0, having beaten the Buckeyes –at Lincoln. But the big girls haven’t played each other much.
Unfortunately, the Gophers shot themselves in the foot by losing to Northwestern – at the Pav, no less! (I still haven’t figured out how that happened.) We finish the season with a grueling, back-to-back road-trip to Columbus and Lincoln. (Did the schedule-makers have a grudge against our Gophers?) It would be fun to fantasize about the Gophers finishing strong, but unless the Husker lose some matches between now and then, Nebraska could clinch the title before we get to Lincoln.
NEXT UP for the Gophers: Michigan State (not very good) at the Pav on Wed (7:00, BTN+), then at Madison on Saturday. Rumor is, there might be some Halloween parties on State Street.