Gophs over Hawkeyes, 25-20, 25-18 & 25-12. Iowa is actually better than they were a few years ago; they’ve won 4 Big 10 matches (although 2 of those were home and home vs a bad Rutgers team) with 2 to go (both in L.A., they won’t beat So. Cal but they might beat UCLA). And they hung with the Gophers in Set 1, 11-10 before the Gophs took over, and took an early 1-6 lead and were only down 1 at 16-15 in Set 2. By Set 3, they were thinking about the trip home. Coach Cook was not in attendance, reportedly due to a family medical emergency.
Predictably, the Gopher pins overpowered the Hawkeyes, Hanson had 15 kills (including 3 from the back-row),, Grote 7, Wooker 5, Shaffmaster 3. And Minatee added 7, 3 slides, 3 quicks, and 1 off an overpass. (Wooker’s thunderous smash on an Iowa overpass, the highlight of the match, demonstrated how to put an overpass away). Minatee should dominate bottom-rung teams, but prior to her best match in a month vs Wisconsin, there had been several matches where she contributed almost nothing. Perhaps she has her confidence back.
Two regular season matches left, Illinois at Champaign on Wednesday, 7:00, BTN+, and Ohio State at the Pav, on Friday, 6:00 on FS1. (Senior Night, last guaranteed home match for Shaffmaster, Grote and others.) We need to win both.
The Illini, at 10 & 8 in the Big 10, right on our heels with legitimate NCAA aspirations, beat So Cal in Champaign, so this will be a gut check for the Gophs. The Buckeyes have only won 6 Big 10 matches so far, but they won Sets 1 & 2 from our Gophs in Columbus in late October, pushing the Gophs to 5 sets, so we shouldn’t take them for granted either.