Our Gophs were swept by ASU, 24-26, 17-25 & 23-25, Two of the 3 sets were 2-pointers, but good teams find a way to win the close sets – and tonight Arizona State was the better team. Arizona State is a good team, maybe better than their #12 ranking, but getting swept by a team ranked equivalently is disappointing.
There was some good news:
- Wooker is back! Adequate won’t get it; this Gopher squad needs Wooker to lead the team – and tonight she did! I had her with 18 kills, including 1 from the back row, and a .421 percentage. 18 kills in 3 sets is a very strong outing. I thought she also served well, 2 aces and 2 errors; I’ll take that every match. And her serve-receive held up; I had her with one poor receive in about a dozen attempts. The best news is that there was no indication of a back problem. Tonight’s match ended at 11pm, and tomorrow’s match starts at 4pm – I’ll be very interested to see if she can play well with such a short turn-around.
- Kinney had 10 kills, not bad for 3 sets.
- And Palabiyik is back – less of a surprise. I had her with 1 receiving error in about 20 attempts.
- Garr had 1 ace and 1 error, but I felt she served strong all night.
The most discouraging thing, besides the sweep, was the non-existent offense from our Middles. A total of 3 kills in 3 sets.
- I had Taylor with 3 additional kills, but all 3 were off of ASU overpasses – Taylor put zero balls away off about a dozen sets from Stella.
- Blazkova started, got 1 early kill, on a quick, then disappeared.
- Hoecke subbed in for Blazkova late in Set 2, and had 2 kills off quicks.
- I had predicted that Minatee would get the start, but she didn’t play at all. It’s possible that she isn’t completely healthy, but she was dressed and looked okay. And based on prior years, a healthy Minatee, though too short to block much, has been our most effective offensive Middle, so I was surprised that she didn’t play. I’ll watch her closer in today’s warmups.
- A total of 3 Middle-kills, 1 back-row kill, and zero from Stella in 2 attempts. Not enough to prevent a good ASU defense from focusing their attention on our pins.
Gilk’s performance was also disappointing, 7 kills at a .130 clip. Gilk is our only pre-season All Big 10 player, and Stella fed her a lot, especially early. We need more from Gilk.
At least for this first match, my depth-chart predictions were pretty close.
- Gilk, Wooker, and Kinney as our pins. Crossen came in to serve a couple times, but neither she nor Acevedo played otherwise.
- Palabiyik, Garr, and Thibault, in that order, at Libero. Kraft did not play. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kraft “red-shirts” this season (though under the new rules, I’m not sure “red-shirt” is still a thing.) Â
- I was off on our Middles. Taylor was #1. But Blazkova got the other start, later replaced by Hoecke, who I thought would be ahead of Blazkova. And Minatee, who I expected to start, didn’t play – maybe injured?
Hoping for a better performance vs Creighton tomorrow, but Creighton beat Purdue in the match prior to MN v ASU.
Lots of Gopher fans in attendance.