Shaffmaster, a First-team All Big Ten selection, played well, especially in Set 1 when she was 3 for 3 on attacks; but OSU’s Big Ten Setter of the Year, Mac Podraza, out-played Shaffmaster. And Big Ten Player of the Year, Landfair, also had a good match, 15 kills; but was out-played by OSU’s Emily Londot (also First-team All Big Ten). The Buckeyes move on the Elite Eight 25-22, 21-25, 21-25, 19-25, ending McCutcheon’s career as Coach.
Given a perfect Left-side set, I’ll take Landfair over Londot. But Londot was hitting everything from everywhere. Londot got kills from Left-side, Right-side, Middle and Back Row; she even had a kill from well out-of-bounds, and she attacks every chance she gets. Landfair had 10 kills on big swings from the Left-side, 2 dink-kills, and 3 Back-row kills. She would have had more Back-row kills if she hadn’t fouled the ten-ft line at least twice (not sure if that’s Landfair’s fault or Shaffmaster’s). And as usual, Landfair would not aggressively attack a poor set. Londot did.
Other than that, the causes for losing were the usual suspects:
- Poor receiving. The Buckeyes targeted Landfair all day; she handled most of her receives – but most wasn’t good enough.
- No go-to hitter when Landfair and Booth aren’t Front-Row. Booth had 5 kills and 5 blocks; pretty good for a freshman, but Wenaas (who, remember, is playing out of position) and Wooker played okay, but neither reached double digits for kills. And Davis’s contributions were minimal. (One strong Middle is an improvement over last season, but we need two.)
- And OSU dinked us to death. Last season and early this season, opponents were burning the Gophs with dinks to our short Right-side; Shaffmaster in particular has compensated for that – at the expense of the “doughnut hole” in the middle of the court, which OSU exploited frequently.
Early in the season, I suggested that OSU was actually the best team in the Big Ten; I don’t understand how they lost their last 4 conference matches.
NEXT UP
When I recover emotionally, I’ll have some things to say about McCutcheon’s future, the new coach or search for one, and the transfer portal. Reader comments on today’s loss or the season in general are welcome as always. John