Reader R.A. digs in on Samedy’s lack of creativity being part of the Gophers’ problem against Michigan: I agree that Samedy is one of the all-time greats. But opponents know what she will do. She would be more productive if she hit more cross-court shots — vs simply powering shots thru blocks, or dumping them over hands.
Reader R.A. continues: What makes Maryland’s win over Wisconsin even more inscrutable is the way they handed points to the Gophers. They had more hitting errors (35) than kills (24) against the Gophs, almost as many hitting errors as we had kills (37). Thank you, Terps! I believe our blocking unnerved Maryland into those hitting errors.
[John: I felt that the Gopher blocking corps, led by Husemann, was especially effective in the 1st set of the Maryland Match, and may very well have contributed to Maryland hitting so many ball out of bounds the rest of the way. But still – it is hard to understand how the Terp team we saw at the Pav yesterday could have beaten the mighty Badgers.]