Since the beginning of the Trump era, wife Maureen has tried to ban the use of the word “unprecedented;” but this was the first loss to Maryland in program history, Terps in five, 18-25, 25-22, 26-24, 20-25, 10-15. The Gophers and the Terps came into the match with identical 2 & 2 records in the Big Ten. Maryland had a much better overall record, but they hadn’t beaten anyone any good, and the Gophers extremely challenging non-conference schedule was supposed to prepare them for adversity. But it did not prepare the Gophs for the adversity of playing without star setter Melani Shaffmaster. Shaffmaster was at the match, but, apparently due to illness during the week, did not step on the court.
(I was unable to watch Set 1, an 18-25 loss, because, to my knowledge, it was not televised anywhere, due to the preliminary game going 4 sets, So my analysis refers to Sets 2 through 4.)
Backup setter Elise McGhie played hard, but the fall-off from Shaffmaster to McGhie was painfully obvious:
- Problem 1, the 5-10 McGhie cannot block, and the Terps knew it. The BTN announcer described several Maryland kills as “tricky,” but I don’t know what’s tricky about pounding the ball down the line over the hands of a setter/blocker who can barely reach the top of the net.
- Problem 2, McGhie’s tempo is slower than Shaffmaster, which is what it is, but it requires adjustments by the hitters. Several GopherVBallRocks readers have wondered why the Gophers don’t (usually) play a 6-2, and these slight variations are part of the reason.
- Problem 3, I had Julie Hanson with the only back-row kill of the match (we usually have half a dozen); it seemed to me that most of McGhie’s attempted back-row sets were unhittable.
- I think that McGhie’s vulnerability should have dictated a shift in serving strategy. I wanted the Gophs to serve very aggressively when McGhie was in the front row (given that an easy serve would allow the Terps to attack McGhie); and to serve conservatively when McGhie was in the back row (trusting our front row, with Grote, to outplay the Terps’ front row). (But I cannot claim that I actually observed this.)
- This is not to suggest that everything that went wrong was McGhie’s fault (she had a respectable 4 kills despite her limited height), the ongoing weaknesses we have seen with Shaffmaster on the court were all too obvious. The Gophers, especially Landfair, continued to struggle with serve-receive, forcing McGhie to chase the ball all over the court, often making her set-choice far too obvious, and therefore easier to block (the Terps had a lot of them).
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
- Our Outside Hitters, especially Grote, played well. Grote had 18 kills (apparently zero in (Set 1, which I didn’t see) , at a ,279 clip.
- I had Davis with 4 blocks, her best blocking-match of the season.
- Murr has 27 digs, many of them spectacular.
- Seldom used D.S. Zeynap Palabiyik contributed 2 aces.
- TOMORROW NIGHT: Rutgers. I think the Gophers should beat Rutgers with my 15 yr-old granddaughter setting. But we shall see.