The Terrapins had won a couple of matches. Against Iowa and Northwestern – but still. So I was expecting a little more resistance. I was also expecting to see checkerboard jerseys, which I like. But I didn’t see either. Gophers 25-9, 25-18 & 25-17, raising our record to 11 & 5 overall, and 5 & 3 almost halfway though the Big Ten regular season.
In Set 1, our sometimes slow-starting Gophs jumped out to an 11-2 lead – with both of the Terrapin points coming off of Gopher service-errors. Our serving got a little better after that; 7 aces and 10 errors for the match. Gilk, who has struggled with her serve this season, was the worst at 1 & 3, Garr the best at 2 & 0.
Sets 2 & 3 were closer in final score, but the Gophers never trailed in either. (Maybe 0-2 in Set 3?) Our offense was strong, and fairly balanced. Kinney had 11 kills at a .500 clip, Hoecke had 10 kills at a .714 clip, Gilk had 9 kills at a .421 clip, Wooker had 8 kills at a .350 clip, and Taylor had 3 kills at a .600 clip. We also out-blocked the Terrapins 8 to 4. All strong numbers – against an over-matched Maryland.
STARTING 9: It is still not entirely clear who our starting 9 are, and we might never know – Coach Cook seems significantly more inclined to use his bench than McCutcheon ever did. (No judgement here, just reporting.)
* I think Hoecke & Taylor are our starting Middles, and both started tonight. But both have been benched, when struggling, in favor of Blazkova. Plus Minatee, who was a starter when she injured her knee a year ago, played a few minutes last night and again tonight, so she could soon be in the mix as well.
* Gilk played great Opposite from mid-October to mid-November last year, earning All-Big Ten Freshman recognition, was named to this year’s pre-season All-Big Ten Team, and she’s had a couple of great matches, including tonight. But she has also played poorly at times. The Freshman Crossen, whose natural position would seem to be Leftside, has looked great at Opposite in several matches, including last night vs Michigan. I expected Gilk to start last night, but Coach Cook played Crossen; then I expected Crossen to start tonight, but Coach played Gilk.
* Our next match is against #9 Purdue at Purdue, so I assume that Coach will play the 9 he thinks are our best – whoever that might be. I think that’s Hoecke & Taylor, but you could flip a coin between Gilk and Crossen.
CORRECTION TO LAST NIGHT’S POST: In last night’s fairly lengthy ramble about Wooker — about her health and her futility vs Michigan, I reported that Wooker had hit a miserable .032. That was wrong and frequent contributor RA caught it; Wooker hit minus .032 vs Michigan. I keep my own stats for kills, but I can’t keep up with attempted hits, so I have to depend on the published stats for hitting %, and I missed the minus. It was late and I was tired.
Anyway, Wooker looked better tonight. She again got up slow the one time she went to the floor, but 3 of her 8 kills were from the backrow. She also had a couple of great digs, a pair of blocks, and a pair of Aces (vs 2 errors.) She had to be feeling pretty good.
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
LS was asked why the Gophers, with 4 Liberos on the roster, sometimes have Olivia Swenson, perhaps the least-likely Libero on the roster, wearing a Libero Jersey. I think it is because a new rule (last year?) allows teams to play two Liberos in the same set, as long as they’re not on the floor at the same time. And Liberos coming in and out do not count as substitutions, of which there is a per-set limit. This limit is generous and doesn’t come into play very often – but it could in a set that goes to 32-32 or something. So in recent matches, Olivia has played designated-server wearing a Libero Jersey – thus saving a few substitutions. Olivia is not much of a Libero (she did have one pretty good dig tonight) but she has been serving well.
One of the most difficult plays in volleyball, in my opinion, is blocking against an opponent attacking your team’s overpass. You’re not expecting it, and probably never practice it. The opposing attacker isn’t expecting it either, but the ball is coming toward them, making the timing basic hand-eye coordination. But the ball is coming from behind you, and you aren’t allowed to touch it before your opponent, making your timing very difficult. I bring this up because the Gophers executed this very difficult play 3 times tonight. Stella did it twice and Taylor one. None of the 3 were block-kills, so they won’t show up in the box score, but all 3 kept the rally going.
NEXT UP: At #9 Purdue, next Friday, Oct 23, 6:00, BTN+