B1G Match 4: Gophers Host Penn State (9-30-23)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Penn State is 2-0 in conference and currently leading the Illini 2-0 in Champaign
 


Already trailing 11-3, this is gonna be a quick match. Back to baseball for me.
 


Damn, this season is getting hard to watch. You never know which team is gonna show up. This could be our first losing season since 2014.
 


This Gopher team is headed nowhere. If they make the tournament, it will likely be a first or second round exit. Just too many errors. Any player serving tough is guaranteed to follow up an ace with a service error. How bad are Gray and the Turkish import in practice that we almost never see them in serve receive and back row defense? What is Cook seeing that he thinks Landfair should not be subbed out for a DS? They are rarely attacking from the back row with her anyway. Shaffmaster has her weaknesses but how does any setter consistently better so much poor passing? This team even struggles to terminate overpasses.

The Gophers should probably not be ranked, but I guess it will take losing to some unranked opponents for this to finally happen. Let's hope Cook starts to schedule easier in the non-conference, too. I know there was at least a small vocal crowd that was ready to move on from Hugh. I think they might start to regret this. Cook, so far, appears to be a big step down.

Sorry for voicing so much frustration. I'm sure the players feel much, much worse about it. I really hope the Gophers and Cook show great improvement over the next few months and prove me wrong. And that I wasted my time posting any of this. :LOL:
 

WayOfTheGopher said:
Damn, this season is getting hard to watch. You never know which team is gonna show up. This could be our first losing season since 2014.
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Yeah, depressing to watch. The team seems a grab-bag of a few talented stars and lesser players, which lacks the ability to put a drive together when the pressure mounts. They seem to get overpowered at about 22-21 in decisive sets.
 

Yes we have gone from watching "low error" ball to "high error" ball with the coaching change. I don't feel the shoulders of some of our Gopher starters are as broad as KCook wants them or expects them to be to keep playing with the errors this Gopher team has had so far this season. However, TayLa had one of her better games and I am happy for her.

I think Wookie is carrying a lot of frustration and I for one just want to see her get the ball over the net and into the opponents court. No jump serving etc. just get it into play.

We really need a middle game. However, I am not expecting that to happen anytime soon either.....but it sure would be helpful moving forward.
 

We will have a middle game once Shaffmaster is gone. Shaff has a lot of strengths but she's had 3+ years to learn to set the middle more and it's just not happening. She either doesnt trust her middles or she doesnt trust herself to do it well often.

She also hasn't had great passers to help her out so it just exhaberates that weakness.

On match point last night she had a good pass, wide open middle and she chose to go to the left pin. It's happened many times before and it will happen again. Too predictable, easy for the opposing team to defend. 🤷‍♀️

Again there is something not right with this team and there are only a couple of same denominators from the last few years. I dont know what it is but it is frustrating.
 



Yeah the team is what it is at this point, next weekend we'll be halfway through the season. I wouldn't expect MN to host the first weekend and depending on where they get sent might not even make the 3rd round this year which is a huge disappointment. Again just don't think the talent available is being used properly to make this team successful but I'm not the coach so what do I know. I'm just a frustrated fan who wants to watch good VB and this is not it. Might have to cheer on Nebraska, Stanford or Louisville this year and I can't believe I just said that!
 

Exciting match. Disappointing result. Need to learn to play good defense. Need to cut down on service errors. Giving your opponent 14 free points on serves is highly unacceptable. Is their strategy to go for broke on serves because their defense is so poor? We are in the bottom half of the Big Ten. Unacceptable. They have a bunch of matches against weak teams coming up. Can they improve their play? Can they avoid an upset?
 

www.startribune.com

Gophers volleyball drops another match to ranked opponent, falling in four sets to Penn State

Minnesota is now 6-6 overall, 2-2 in Big Ten play. The Gophers' six losses have all come against ranked opponents.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Quotes:

"You have to walk towards it," coach Keegan Cook said. "Everyone wants to walk away from the film of this match, and wait as long as they can to watch it. You have to walk right towards it and make a plan for what you're going to do come Monday morning."

"Sorry to let the crowd down again, I feel like I have done that quite a bit," Cook said, then struck his usual, forward-looking tone. "But it's September 30th, Monday will be October. If I remember, they didn't decide a champion until December last year."
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GopherVB23 said:
We will have a middle game once Shaffmaster is gone. Shaff has a lot of strengths but she's had 3+ years to learn to set the middle more and it's just not happening. She either doesnt trust her middles or she doesnt trust herself to do it well often.

She also hasn't had great passers to help her out so it just exhaberates that weakness.

On match point last night she had a good pass, wide open middle and she chose to go to the left pin. It's happened many times before and it will happen again. Too predictable, easy for the opposing team to defend. 🤷‍♀️

Again there is something not right with this team and there are only a couple of same denominators from the last few years. I dont know what it is but it is frustrating.
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I hear you loud and clear...

Something absolutely more puzzling is how all the recruits brought in by KCook and his coaches, have performed so far this season quite well and I am expecting that to continue. We all know I am talking about Grote and Awoleye. Of course Murr can be added to that list, but I don't really know if KCook recruited her.

They came here and are being asked to "adjust" to this new coaching staff just like our Gopher players who returned are.....OR ARE THE LATTER ADJUSTING?

I know fans are upset with the subbing of Hanson for Grote. Last night Hanson had 2 kills and 10 digs. Not so sure Grote would have had 10 digs, if she rotated around......2 more kills to her total probably yes. I like them both in the lineup.

Right now I know no matter how this season ends, I want both Grote and Awoleye to return.
 
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We won't beat anyone with a pulse. This team is maybe #20-25. Too many warts to compete with teams ranked #15 or better. Except for the Oregon match, that's about the one match you can hang your hat on this year, good for the ladies to have that.

They'll beat every team like Michigan. They're the best of the middle. Will lose to all the good teams.

They don't deserve to host the first round like they usually do. But I would not put it past the NCAA to lie and put them in the top 16, because they can sell more tickets to Gophers strong home attendance than giving it to some other program that averages 1-2k attendance.


That's really about it this season. It's not going to change. Is what it is, by now. There won't be any further growth or change.

Really disappointing and frustrating, that the exact same "core", including supposed the reigning POY, can play so badly overall compared to truly good teams.

Like I said, they'll have no problem with the Michigans of the Big Ten. They'll finish 5th or 6th, best of the middle. PSU, Neb, Wisc all head and shoulders above, and assume Purdue is as well. Indiana gave Neb a solid match, I assume we play everyone in the conference once, so that could be a loss, we'll see.
 

Repeating what I have posted, at some point during Gopher volleyball.

Hugh stated "not every player plays up to their ranking". This has always stuck with me and it will continue to through another very very very rough season.
 

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