2017 Volleyball

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MRJ said:
The team is back in a funk and it couldn't come at a much worse time of year.

Wouldn't be at all surprising if Illinois takes them down.
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I think you're right. The hope, though, is that Illinois is pretty inconsistent. It will be interesting to see the match, since it's played in old Huff Gym at the U of I. In my youth in downstate Illinois decades ago, Huff Gym was the home of Illini basketball and the Illinois High School State Basketball tournament. It was pitifully small about the size of a high school gym. Wonder how many it seats for volleyball?
 

Hrothgar said:
I think you're right. The hope, though, is that Illinois is pretty inconsistent. It will be interesting to see the match, since it's played in old Huff Gym at the U of I. In my youth in downstate Illinois decades ago, Huff Gym was the home of Illini basketball and the Illinois High School State Basketball tournament. It was pitifully small about the size of a high school gym. Wonder how many it seats for volleyball?
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I've only watched games televised from there and from the looks of it, it's a pretty intimate setting. Also seems like a venue that gets pretty rowdy when the Illini get rolling. Not exactly what the doctor ordered for a Gopher team tripping all over themselves at the moment...
 

For the Gopher freshmen it's maybe seeming like a long season right now. Feels like their defense isn't putting much pressure on. They need to gut out a win a Illinois. Then maybe things will look better at home next week.
 


Well someone above predicted it. They are down 2 sets to 1 to Illinois and we barely won the first set 29-27. Lucky to not be swept, but it appears they will lose again. Not sure what happened, but we lost our mojo at the wrong time of year. Next weekend against Penn St could be ugly.
 


Sparlimb said:
Well someone above predicted it. They are down 2 sets to 1 to Illinois and we barely won the first set 29-27. Lucky to not be swept, but it appears they will lose again. Not sure what happened, but we lost our mojo at the wrong time of year. Next weekend against Penn St could be ugly.
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This team really lacks toughness. There have several been times throughout the season where they have simply mailed it in when things get difficult.

Hugh has stated many times that his goal for this team was to have them peaking by the end of the season, but they clearly aren't. In fact, they've regressed in terms of focus and intensity. Simply put, they're not very good right now.
 

Predictably, the ladies fall in four to Illinois.

If I was Penn State, I wouldn't be worrying much about playing this Gopher team. They have no shot whatsoever playing this way next weekend.
 

We were at the match in Evanston last night and they were lucky to win.
Rosado and Goehner, the seniors, are playing very poorly. Rosado is targeted constantly by opposing servers. Their block has become nonexistent and they do not have the mental toughness of the past few years. They can't put together runs and lose just about every joust at the net. They are making concentration errors which is astonishing at this point in the season. No killer instinct. PSU will kill them.
 

The Gophers are lucky they've got Sameday. She seems the only one performing. I thought winning the first set at Illinois would energize them, but they lost all energy after that. Being a volleyball novice, I can't analyze what's going on, but they seem to have no defense. They seem unable to force any mistakes from the opponents. I think the decline has been going on gradually. They beat teams during the 11-game winning streak, but increasing it was by the skin of their teeth, as against IL at home, Maryland, and Ohio State.
 



As a former college teacher, I know all about the ups and downs of uneven undergraduate performance in the classroom, brilliant one day, blank stares the next. Maybe that same pattern pertains to varsity sports, too? If so, I can see losing in volleyball to Nebraska or Penn State and saying, well, we did our best, they were just better than us. But getting bulldozed by Purdue and Illinois and losing a 25-13 set to lowly to Northwestern? I really can't believe that. There has to be a story there. Any guesses what it is? Volleyball can't be that unpredictable a sport, can it?
 

You could always throw out something like: the grind of the semester and the season has gotten to some of the players. You'd think true freshman the most susceptible, but maybe its hitting some of the other gals too?

I don't know the style of the Gophers coaching staff, in terms of how "harsh" or "hard" on the players they are, but that can be a factor in what I just mentioned, too.


Wild guess, that could be dead wrong.
 


Ignatius L Hoops said:
http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d1

NCAA RPI through Sundays matches: Gopher's slide to seventh. In general, B1G teams saw some slippage.

1. Kentucky
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Penn State
5. Stanford
6. Nebraska
7. Minnesota
8. Washington
9. Wichita State
10. Wisconsin

17. Michigan State
25. Purdue
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Sorry, but Kentucky is B.S. I all but guarantee you they will not be in the final four.

They play in an average to crappy SEC. They got smoked by Kansas and Creighton. They have some other, better than average, but nothing special wins (Louisville, for example). And they have that one fluky win over Florida, that this whole pile of steaming bunk is based on .... note that Florida turned around and smoked them on the rematch.

This is just the hyper inflated ego of the SEC, so happy that it's peeing its pants to have someone of note other than Florida in the sport.
 



I'm assuming we'll handle Rutgers in the same way that Northwestern and Indiana were handled. And I'm hoping that the gals will get up to play Penn St at home, the seniors' last home regular season game. Hopefully not the last game of the season in the Pav (that should be a foregone conclusion, right?)

Hoping to catch the Penn St game on TV. Good luck this weekend ladies! Finish strong!
 

Minnesota took out Rutgers in straight sets, -18, -8, -16. Highlights included Maddie Beal starting the first set and nailing 4 kills in 4 attempts, Molly Lohman's 3 aces (the team totaled 8) and Stephanie Samedy's 14 kills hitting .667.

We're ready for another packed Pav tomorrow as Minnesota takes on Penn State who lost their first set to the Badgers and then won the next three.
 

And the game is on regular BTN (not the Plus crap), for those who want to watch on TV.
 

Great first set ! Gophers hanging tough but can not close it out.
 



I think that first set was the season's most exciting. For the match, Penn State just dominated the middle both offensively and defensively. Our middles seemed caught flat footed at times. We seem to be a blocker away from being a final four contender.

It was good to see McLean get four kills. Unfortunately, she was in for Martin who had 1 kill and 3 errors-one of those errors was the worse miss hit of the season.

Tomorrow we'll see who gets sent to the Pav.
 

We do not look like a final four team this year. But we're young and will be better next year. I'd like to see a run and us give Florida or someone a scare in the round of 8.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
I think that first set was the season's most exciting. For the match, Penn State just dominated the middle both offensively and defensively. Our middles seemed caught flat footed at times. We seem to be a blocker away from being a final four contender.

It was good to see McLean get four kills. Unfortunately, she was in for Martin who had 1 kill and 3 errors-one of those errors was the worse miss hit of the season.

Tomorrow we'll see who gets sent to the Pav.
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I agree. The Gophers' defense/offense at the net seems weak, lacking in real leaping/timing ability. I think what they'll need next year is one more player of Sameday's superior talent.

PSU, on the other hand, didn't look like the real world-beater I expected to see. They, too, made lots of mistakes and could have been beaten by a sharper, more consistent Gopher team.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
I think that first set was the season's most exciting. For the match, Penn State just dominated the middle both offensively and defensively. Our middles seemed caught flat footed at times. We seem to be a blocker away from being a final four contender.

It was good to see McLean get four kills. Unfortunately, she was in for Martin who had 1 kill and 3 errors-one of those errors was the worse miss hit of the season.

Tomorrow we'll see who gets sent to the Pav.
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I'm not a big fan of the lack of consistency on sets this year, which seems (to me) to be the biggest void. I also don't think the team has the same level of digging D as they have had in the past.

The team is very good...just not elite.
 

I think we should limit the use of that word and save it for the FB forum where it is GROSSLY overused, lol. Although, the VB team is closer to the meaning than our FB team.
 

Wow I'm surprised Kentucky got a Top 4 seed.

Florida, Kentucky, Penn State and Stanford. Rest of field in 30 min.
 

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As Overpass noted, here's the tweet from the NCAA on the top four.
 


Just saw the brackets. Agree with the comment made above saying the Gophers don't seem to be a final four (elite) team this year...............that said, I honestly could see them getting to the NCAA finals, lol. I think Florida is painfully overrated and Stanford hasn't seemed like the juggernaut from previous years. No one on their half of the bracket scares. Honestly, this team has the potential to be a national title winning team, like a rerun of Stanford's magical freshman driven run from a year ago, but this team's youth has showed all throughout this season with their inconsistent play all year so who knows. Haven't been the biggest fan of Hugh's coaching this season.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
https://twitter.com/NCAAVolleyball/...ww.ncaa.com/championships/volleyball-women/d1


Here are the brackets. The Gophers are the #7 overall seed in #2 seeded Florida's bracket. Minnesota hosts the usual neighbors: North Dakota (the Gophers Friday opponent) Northern Iowa and Louisville. A doable run to the regional finals.
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I'm pretty happy with our draw. Not that bad and I've wanted to see what we can do against Florida. Wisconsin gets Stanford again (assuming the Badgers make it that far). Should be an interesting year.
 

Sparlimb said:
I'm pretty happy with our draw. Not that bad and I've wanted to see what we can do against Florida. Wisconsin gets Stanford again (assuming the Badgers make it that far). Should be an interesting year.
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Speaking of Wisconsin, they got the Gopher softball treatment. They were #7 in the last reveal before Selection Sunday, and moved out of the seeds.
 

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