I promised you that a healthy Gopher squad would beat Northwestern (and Ohio State at Ohio State on Sunday). We were not healthy, as Lydia Grote, who did not play in Set 3 at Penn State, was not dressed (as usual, no explanation). But we swept the Wildcats without her, 25-18, 20-20, 25-17. Julia Hanson picked up the slack, with 19 kills in the 3-set match. Halfway through Set 2, the Gophs led 14-11, so at that point we had scored 39 pts for the match, some on Northwestern errors; Hanson already had 13 kills, one-third of our pts. She hit .529 for the match. Hanson is also the best of our 3 Leftsides at serve-receive. The young woman who sat in front of me tonight played with Hanson in high school (she currently plays for Bethel) couldn’t believe that Hanson rode the bench these last two years. I didn’t have an answer.
Set 1: Hanson had 5 early kills sparking the Gophs to an 8-2 lead, which soon became 16-5, and we coasted from there. Set 2: The Wildcats best set, it was tied 10-10 before the Gophs slowly pulled away, 16-12, 21-15, 25-20. Set 3: Up 8-3 and 15-4, the Gophs subbed in Schnickels at Opposite and Engeman at Middle. The Wildcats pulled to within 22-17, but then Hanson rotated to front-row and put the match away.
Lauren Crowl, playing most of the match for the Grote recorded 5 kills and 3 blocks, and she’s a decent passer (though not part of our serve-receive). BUT, we started each set in the rotation in which Shaffmaster was front-left. Anyone familiar with a 5-1 system will immediately recognise how unusual this is, and what it says – that Coach Cook was not thrilled to have Crowl in the line-up. Crowl pounds the ball – but with limited success. I’ve been thinking that her swings are slow and overly deliberate, making her easy to dig. The aforementioned young woman in row 13 had a different theory; she thinks Crowl is afraid of getting blocked, making her easy to dig.
One of the match’s downside was our 9 service errors, 3 each by Hanson and Thibault – vs 3 aces, none by Hanson and Thibault. Hanson obviously made up for it in other ways, but Thibault was eventually replaced by Gray. On the upside, Wooker had 2 back-row kills tonight – I think that’s a career record; maybe she’s healthy?
NEXT UP: At Ohio State, noon Sunday, BTN+. The Buckeyes are 1 & 8 in the Big Ten, and they were swept by Purdue this evening (we lost to Purdue in 5). However, their loss was at Purdue (ours was at the Pav), and 2 of their 3 sets were 2-pointers. They have two excellent Leftside Hitters; their Middles didn’t do much, but partly because the Boilermakers kept the Buckeyes out-of-system most of the match. We’ll need to serve aggressively, and do so much better than we did tonight. And we need Grote back in the lineup.