B1G Match 5: Gophers Visit Maryland (10-6-23)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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The no excuses section of the schedule begins Friday night when Minnesota travels to College Park for a match with Maryland. The Terrapins are 2-2 in the B1G after today’s loss at Ohio State, 23, 22, 12. Previously, the Terps lost 1-3 at Purdue and won at Rutgers 3-1 and posted a home win versus Michigan 3-0.

After facing Maryland, Minnesota’s schedule continues with Rutgers, Michigan, Northwestern, Rutgers and Michigan State. This streak of favorable opposition is preparation for an October 26th trip to West Lafayette.
 

Maryland and Michigan away games are on BTN.

Not wasting my money on BTN+ for this years team.
 

www.testudotimes.com

Maryland volleyball weekend preview: No. 16 Minnesota and Indiana

The Terps look to bounce back at home.
www.testudotimes.com www.testudotimes.com

Maryland volleyball head coach Adam Hughes said his team’s defeat at No. 22 Ohio State last week was probably the worst performance he’s seen since he’s been at Maryland.

After getting swept by the Buckeyes, the Terps return home looking to right the ship.

Maryland will face its third ranked conference opponent in the past five games Friday night when it takes on No. 16 Minnesota. The Terps will return to the XFINITY Pavilion the following night to take on Indiana.

Friday’s game will begin at 8 p.m. and air on Big Ten Network, while Saturday’s contest is set for 7 p.m. and will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.

No. 16 Minnesota Golden Gophers (6-6, 2-2 Big Ten)​

2022 record: 22-9 (15-5 Big Ten)

Head coach Keegan Cook is in his first year with Minnesota after leading Washington to eight straight NCAA Tournament appearances (six Sweet 16s, four Elite Eights and one Final Four) and four Pac-12 regular-season championships. Cook is a three-time AVCA Region Coach of the Year and was the 2020-21 Pac-12 Coach of the Year.

The Golden Gophers began their season with a sweep of then-No. 15 Baylor and a win against then-No. 6 Oregon shortly after. They haven’t lost to an unranked conference opponent yet, and will look to continue their ascension in the Big Ten and national rankings this weekend.

Minnesota comes into College Park with a flawless 18-0 all-time record against Maryland.

Players to watch​

McKenna Wucherer, sophomore outside hitter, No. 3 — After being named to the All-Big Ten freshman team, Wucherer is on a tear to start her sophomore season. The Wisconsin native already earned Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge MVP and is just outside the top 10 in the conference in kills (159).

Strength​

Blocks against. Despite having faced eight ranked opponents in its first 12 games, Minnesota is one of the few teams in the conference to have allowed under 100 combined total blocks. Working around the defense has been one of the Gophers’ strengths all season.

Weakness​

Attacking numbers. Despite being a top 25 team in the nation, Minnesota ranks near the bottom of the Big Ten in both kills and assists. That is partially due to its lower number of sets played, but Minnesota’s offense has struggled when top scorers Wucherer, Taylor Landfair and Lydia Grote are not contributing
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Gophers doing nothing right, this set would've been a blowout if not for the Maryland errors.
 

Terps on a 5 point run because the fucking umps can't tell out from in.
 


Totally disappointed. This program is in free fall.
 





This year is in free fall, not necessarily the program. The transfers Cook brought in are out performing Hugh's recruits. It could even be worse, if you can imagine that, without those transfers.
 

I don’t know who is more brutal to watch, Landfair or Wucherer.

Was happy that Schaff wasn’t setting.

Wouldn’t be upset if all three transfer out and/or get benched.


This team does not deserve to make he tournament and I think it would be fitting if they did not. In line with how poorly they’ve played.


Indiana went to five with Penn St, MSU took a set from Neb, Purdue. Could lose to all of them.

8th place finish definitely not out of the question.
 



Well, a fall out of the AVCA Coaches Poll is in their future. That is the current trajectory.

If the conference is getting better then why aren't we? We are in the conference, after all.

Cook's transfers are indeed better than Hugh's recruits at this point. The glaring issue is Landfair's floor level movement. It's not just serve receive, it's moving after any ball that comes in below her waist. Every team has seen it and exploits it. It gives opponents four to five points per set.

When it comes to Schaff and Wuencher, I think they are serviceable players who don't have continued glaring issues, in my eyes.

It's disappointing to see this after the last 7 to 8 seasons.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
The no excuses section of the schedule begins Friday night when Minnesota travels to College Park for a match with Maryland. The Terrapins are 2-2 in the B1G after today’s loss at Ohio State, 23, 22, 12. Previously, the Terps lost 1-3 at Purdue and won at Rutgers 3-1 and posted a home win versus Michigan 3-0.

After facing Maryland, Minnesota’s schedule continues with Rutgers, Michigan, Northwestern, Rutgers and Michigan State. This streak of favorable opposition is preparation for an October 26th trip to West Lafayette.
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This is very frustrating team to watch. Totally inconsistent in every aspect of the game. I expected some growing pains with a new coach and system, but landfair and wucherer have played poorly or been absent from matches. Landfair had 9 kills in a 5 set match and wurcherer had 14 hitting errors and 5 service errors of the teams 15. Right there is your match. I know coach wants tough serving, buy you have to balance aces to errors and their a long way from currently. Against Penn State, wucherer had 7 service errors to 2 aces. Not good enough. With the talent on this team they should not be 6-7 and 2-3 in league. At the beginning of the year I had placed 3rd behind the badgers and huskers, but now they may finish 5th or 6th if they can get their act together.
 

All of our expectations for this season were based off of the assumption that if a match goes 5 sets, Landfair has 20-30 kills.

She had 9. Something is not well with her, whether it's physical or mental, we do not know.

The second piece of the puzzle is that KCook wants to get away from low risk Hugh ball. That is fine, but there will be a transition.

The program is fine. The recruiting classes are strong, the transfers have all been good. Y'all fold so fast in the face of a little adversity.
 

The "something" is this: KCook refuses to take her out of the back row, when she has no business being back there.

Her confidence is beyond shot. She isn't improving in the back row. She looks like she doesn't even try at times.

And it has absolutely leaked over into her hitting.


She, of everyone, is most benefited by the ultra tempo that Schaff throws the ball to the outsides. McGhie has a slower ball and she was hitting it on the way down. Or she'd time it right, but the block would be camped out on her.

But that's just one match.


Neither her nor Wucherer can tip to save their lives. Weak roll shots. OR Wuch gets frustrated and just starts swinging as hard as she possible can trying to break through. She does a few, but often hits out or gets roofed to China.


Can you imagine if Grote wasn't here??



I honestly would bench all three of them and let McGhie, Hanson, and Grote play, with Crowl at RS. When/if Schnichels is healthy again, give her a shot.


Won't cry a single tear if they transferred out. Best of luck to them, thank you for the memories. None of them are candidates to make the national team or play major pro leagues, at this point.


Program needs a hard reset.


Honestly don't see what good it does to sneak into the tournament and be sent somewhere like Purdue, play a Summit/Ohio Valley team first round, maybe lose, maybe win in 4 or 5, and then lose to the host. Would rather they don't make the tournament.
 

NateDawgUM said:
All of our expectations for this season were based off of the assumption that if a match goes 5 sets, Landfair has 20-30 kills.

She had 9. Something is not well with her, whether it's physical or mental, we do not know.

The second piece of the puzzle is that KCook wants to get away from low risk Hugh ball. That is fine, but there will be a transition.

The program is fine. The recruiting classes are strong, the transfers have all been good. Y'all fold so fast in the face of a little adversity.
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Why does she play back row? Put a DS in when she rotates back. She hasn't been effective with back row attacks and her back row defense is well below average. I don't see the hype others see. I don't see leadership. Gophers should not be ranked in the top 25.
 

Minnesota does not have an effective DS to sub in -

1 - I would love to see more of Z, but what I have observed is no floor defense. She isn't moving on anything hit around her...fans please focus on that next match she comes in to serve. This could be taking more time than the coaches were hoping for, when they recruited her. On the other hand, her serving has been very positive along with her energy.

2 - The little I have seen of Gray in the back I have observed her popping the ball straight up in the air. Also, can we really count on her serving the ball in? KCook is trying to give her opportunities by serving, but she cannot positively help us that much. Did she serve out the 4th set loss? Look at it this way.....There is a reason or reason(s) KCook IS THE SECOND HC NOT TO USE HER AS A STARTING DS SUB.

Reality is...the Gopher program has been on a decline trying to build up a back court for a few years. Again, a transfer out and decommits have not helped. Also, under Hugh there was no need. Every season Hugh had at least 1-2 effective 6R pins.

I just hope that this coaching staff sticks around (who knows at this point) and gets very busy in the off season by convincing 2 very experienced DS/L to transfer to Minnesota.
 

Landfair is not struggling because she's playing back row, she played back row last year and was First Team All American.
 

NateDawgUM said:
Landfair is not struggling because she's playing back row, she played back row last year and was First Team All American.
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Last year's Landfair and this year's Landfair are not the same player. She is not doing well in the backrow this year, she was decent last year. Dont know what is going on
 

4EverAGopher said:
Minnesota does not have an effective DS to sub in -

1 - I would love to see more of Z, but what I have observed is no floor defense. She isn't moving on anything hit around her...fans please focus on that next match she comes in to serve. This could be taking more time than the coaches were hoping for, when they recruited her. On the other hand, her serving has been very positive along with her energy.

2 - The little I have seen of Gray in the back I have observed her popping the ball straight up in the air. Also, can we really count on her serving the ball in? KCook is trying to give her opportunities by serving, but she cannot positively help us that much. Did she serve out the 4th set loss? Look at it this way.....There is a reason or reason(s) KCook IS THE SECOND HC NOT TO USE HER AS A STARTING DS SUB.

Reality is...the Gopher program has been on a decline trying to build up a back court for a few years. Again, a transfer out and decommits have not helped. Also, under Hugh there was no need. Every season Hugh had at least 1-2 effective 6R pins.

I just hope that this coaching staff sticks around (who knows at this point) and gets very busy in the off season by convincing 2 very experienced DS/L to transfer to Minnesota.
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Choboy decommitting hurt quite bad, in my opinion.

Wucherer has lots of talent and as this is only starting her a sophomore year, she is very valued as a Gopher, this year and in the future. Landfair has been here four years.
 

BS we don’t have a DS that would be better than either Landfair or Wucherer.

Neither of them deserve to play backrow.

They are not high-level outsides.
 

Anyone who watches and knows volleyball… if you just watched Landfair this year and knew nothing about her past, you’d say “wow she looks so slow and unathletic, doesn’t even try on defense, can’t get there, lethargic approach with a short vertical, doesn’t swing hard often, can’t tip, gets roofed when she does swing hard. Not a great player.”

You’re lying to claim otherwise.
 

GopherVB23 said:
Last year's Landfair and this year's Landfair are not the same player. She is not doing well in the backrow this year, she was decent last year. Dont know what is going on
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You need to remember with CC and Kilkelly still playing last season Hugh hid Landfair in that backcourt. You can also add 6R Wenaas to that mix. With all three of those players gone this season, it exposes Landfair and it is not a good thing.
 

We are half way through the season and I seriously do not believe we are going to see too many miracles with this team. There is plenty of room for improvement with this entire roster this season. I just feel we are watching 6 Gopher players out on a volleyball court doing THEIR OWN THING. Right now there just isn't cohesion with this year's team.

We can't pass and that has always put Shaff in a sprint for the ball causing her to have a very questionable OOS set. Well, with her injury, it is much much worse. A healthy Shaff would certainly help, but I have no idea how much.

Different HC and I am still trying to understand HIS SYSTEM.
 

4EverAGopher said:
You need to remember with CC and Kilkelly still playing last season Hugh hid Landfair in that backcourt. You can also add 6R Wenaas to that mix. With all three of those players gone this season, it exposes Landfair and it is not a good thing.
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It is possible that the injuries impede her ability to play at the tippy-top highest strata in the college game again. To be near the best group of athletes in the college game, players need to be 100 percent.

She seems not-insignificantly diminished by leg injury which negatively impacts her explosiveness.
 

Healthy Schaff could still never do the simplest middle sets.

We haven’t had a reasonable middle offense since she’s been the setter here.

Probably why Pittman quit a year early
 

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