In straight sets! 25-22, 25-23, 25-22 — at Lincoln where we almost never win. We needed to win a match this weekend, and I thought we had a 50-50 chance to get one. I thought it unlikely that we would win both, I would have thought it highly unlikely that we would have won at Lincoln in straight sets, and I would never guessed that we would have lost only 1 set all weekend!
HOW DID WE DO IT? As I reported, last night’s match at OSU was sideout-sideout-sideout, with the occasional 2 or 3 point run. Tonight was the opposite of that.
- Set 1: The 6:00 BTN match (Wisconsin beat OSU in 4) ran long; we were down 9-15 when we got the feed but I don’t know how. it happened. Soon after we were down 11-19; pretty grim. Then (I think with MvGraw, Kilkelly and Wenaas serving), the Gophers went on a 13-2 run to take a 24-22 lead, eventually getting set point on a Nebraska service error.
- Set 2: With the Gophers and Huskers furiously trading service errors, the scores stayed close until the Gophers went on a 6-0 run, eventually getting another set point on a Nebraska service error.
- Set 3: After jumping out to a 6-2 lead, the Gophers went through a 2-12 freeze, falling behind 8-14. Then the Gophers snapped out of it with their own 16-5 run to regain the lead at 24-19, eventually getting match point on a rare kill by McKenna Wooker.
MORE ABOUT THE SERVICE ERRORS: The Gopher made 9, distributed among everyone except McGhie. I know this drives some of my readers crazy; one in particular, by Landfair serving at 24-20, drove me crazy. But the Huskers out-did us with 10 service errors. Are the Huskers just stupid? No. At the end of Set 1, following the Gophs amazing comeback, the BTN announcer noted that the Husker servers were allowing the Gophers to play in-system, and everyone knows you can’t stop the Gophs when they’re in-system. The Nebraska coaches must have had the same thought, because the Huskers came out serving very aggressively. And it didn’t work.
MORE ABOUT WOOKER’S INEFFECTIVENESS: Wooker had 10 kills last night in Columbus, but only 3 tonight in Lincoln, vs 3 errors, in 19 attempts. Athletes have off-nights, Landfair had one last week against Rutgers, and Wooker’s a freshman. But here’s another possibility. Most teams play a 5-1, meaning that in half of the rotations, the blocker opposite our left-side hitter is a setter. But Nebraska plays a 6-2, meaning that they always have a “real” blocker opposite our left-side hitter. This didn’t bother the 6-5 Landfair much, she led the Gophs with 15 kills (I thought even Landfair tried too many dinks). But the bigger blocker might have been what slowed Wooker down.
A FINAL THOUGHT: Before the season started, I told you this was a really good team, a Final Four Team, maybe. The dream is back!
NEXT UP: The NCAA Tournament. The NCAA selection show will be broadcast at 6:30 on ESPNU. In case you miss it, I’ll send it out. With the sweep this weekend, we should move up into a 6 to 8 seed. My thought – it would be nice not to have to go to Austin or Madison for the Regions.
READERS RESPOND TO WIN OVER OHIO STATE:
R.A. writes: Landfair flipped a switch and became a different player. She took charge, hit with authority and was reasonable on serve-receive, scored without matched errors. How? Why? Can she do it again? A repeat would give us a chance against NE, not a straight-set loss. Booth had another stellar night. I’m confident in her. Glad we get to host some NCAAs.