Okay, “crush” might be an exaggeration, the Gophs won in 5 sets, 19-25, 25-15, 25-27, 25-15, 18-16 (composite score 112-98), but it is true that the Gophs were rated #18 pre-season and #16 entering conference play, and the Badgers were rated #3 pre-season and #7 entering conference play, so a great win.
Balance was the key to our offense. Grote led Gopher hitters with 17 kills (including 1 dink and 1 dig-overpass deep behind the astonished Sconnies), but Hanson had 15 (also including a dig-overpass deep behind the Sconnies), Acevedo had 12 (including 1 dink), Minatee had 10 (including 7 slides 1 quick and 2 overpass put-aways), Shaffmaster had 6 (really 7 except that the ref called her for a throw that looked good to me – Awoleye and a Badger player got away with much more flagrant throws), and Awoleye had 5 kills (2 slide and 3 quicks). By comparison, the Badgers were dependent, perhaps overly dependent, on the marvelous Sarah Franklin (21 kills, 38% of the Badger total).
As recently as Tuesday, I wrote that Minatee was adequate and Awoleye less than adequate. I certainly expected the Badger Middle-Trio of Carter Booth, Devyn Robinson and CC Crawford to dominate Minatee and Awoleye. Boy was I wrong! Undersized Minatee and Awoleye combined for 16 kills and a .382 hitting percentage, whereas Booth, Robinson and Crawford produced only 5 kills and a hitting percentage of 000. (They had hitting errors to match their 5 kills.) Middles vs Middles was a beat-down.
But I was right about Shaffmaster and Palabiyik. Franklin was probably the best player of the match, but Grote, Shaffmaster and Palabiyik were 2, 3, & 4 (not necessarily in that order), completely out-playing their Badger counter-parts. (Last year and early this year, Shaffmaster would nearly kill herself to reach a 2nd-touch rather than letting Palabiyik handle a 2nd-touch; but I noticed during the matches in Green Bay, and again tonight, that Shaffmaster is now very comfortable letting Palabiyik handle a 2nd-touch – and justifiably so.)
Plus our serving was outstanding, a key factor in the upset victory and definitely a reversal from some previous matches. If you had told me, before the match, that the Gophs would have 6 aces and 8 errors, I would have been very happy with those numbers. But we had 8 aces and 6 service errors.
You probably noticed Acevedo’s contribution, and no reference to Wooker. Wooker is injured (Gopher Policy, as always, is “no-comment.”) Wooker was dressed, warmed up as a serve-receiver, and played back-row for Acevedo in Set 1, but not very well, and not at all after that. Acevedo played front-row and served, and was then relieved by our D.S., Thibault. Grote, who is usually relieved by Thibault after losing her serve, played all 6 rotations beginning with Set 2. I am not remotely confident about our depth at Setter or Middle, and uncertain about our depth at Libero; the Gophers are very fortunate that their one injury so far is at Leftside, where Acevedo filled in admirably.
This match was sold out, especially the student sections, I think they turned away more students than they let in. This was a 5-set match starting at 8:00, so it is well past my bedtime (and no longer Wednesday) as I finish this, but I don’t mind because I AM PUMPED!
NEXT UP: #10 ranked Purdue, Saturday, 5:30, at the Pav (BTN). Purdue is tough, but so are these Gophers.