Last season (2019) was s struggle (injuries, etc) until the final match of the season at Penn State. The Gophers has been beaten by the Nittany Lions at the Pavilion earlier, and needed a win at State College (I’ve been there, nice town) to earn even a top-8 seed for the NCAAs. A tough assignment since they had not won at State College in modern history. But they won, got the 7th seed, and made it to the Final Four.
This weekend’s sweep gives McCutcheon a 3-match streak over the legendary Coach Rose (7 National Championships!), and the Gophers’ first 3-match streak over Penn State ever, modern or not. And don’t think that this is an off-year for Rose’s N-Lions, they came into the weekend rated 8 in the country, and they aren’t likely to drop far if at all. (Purdue was rated 13th when they played the Gophs, and losing a pair of 5-set matches to us raised their rating to 11.)
The box score for Sunday’s victory reveals several anomalies. As one expects, the winning Gophers finished with a slight edge in total points, 98-94. But surprisingly, the losing N-Lions, especially their middles, dominated the Gophers at the net, 14 blocks & 61 kills to the Gophs’ 7 blocks & 56 kills. The Gophs had 10 service Aces to Penn State’s 3, which (statistically at least) offsets the differential in blocks, but still leaves the losing team with more kills.
Even more surprising is that the normally powerful Gophers won the match with a pathetic hitting percentage of .149 (vs .229 for Penn St.). I think the Gophers have lost matches while hitting over .200, and I can’t remember them winning while hitting under .250.