B1G Match 8: Gophers Host Northwestern (10-15-23)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Northwestern is alive; are the Gophers? After dropping their first three B1G matches, the Wildcats improved to 3-4 in conference play by defeating Maryland -21, 21, 17, 20 tonight in Welsh-Ryan.

Wins: @Purdue 3-2, @Michigan State 3-2, Maryland 3-1

Losses: Wisconsin 0-3, Penn State 0-3, Michigan State 2-3, Michigan 1-3
 


Former Volunteer Assistant Coach, Pedro Mendes, will be back in the Pav as one of Northwestern's Assistant Coaches. Also, one of our former setters, Erica Handley....who happens to be another NW Assistant Coach. Along with former Gopher middle blocker, Ellie Husemann.

It is time to see if this team can play together, while committing many less errors.
 

Holy fucking shit, NW really went on a 15-2 run to end the second. Either Cook really doesn't give a fuck or the players have stopped caring. You rarely saw these types of runs when McCutcheon was on the bench. No way we're having a winning season.
 

Looks like this is where I hop off. I knew that there was gonna be some growing pains this season, but never expected anything like this. I hope next year is a different story.
 


Survive and advance ... err... .500 now and currently eligible for NCAA tournament!
 

WayOfTheGopher said:
Holy fucking shit, NW really went on a 15-2 run to end the second. Either Cook really doesn't give a fuck or the players have stopped caring. You rarely saw these types of runs when McCutcheon was on the bench. No way we're having a winning season.
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I was there. NW knew exactly where to serve. Nothing was done. Painful to watch.
 


I followed the match on Stats. They screwed up the 3rd set score, first saying NW won 25-23, then it was a tie, then that MN won 25-24, followed by 24-24, and that MN won the match 2-1. What was going on?
 



13-8 two sets in a row, and lost them both? Then win the match, who's Jekyl and who's Hyde? Players or coahes?
 

I've never witnessed a 14-0 run until today at the Pav. It was some crazy ass exciting volleyball for sure.

www.startribune.com

Gophers volleyball rallies past Northwestern with recruits in attendance

It took five sets, but the Gophers secured a much-needed victory in front of six verbal commitments and Abigail Mullen, the uncommitted top prospect for 2025.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

While the No. 24 Gophers volleyball team was once again searching for itself in a seesawing 25-14, 16-25, 25-27, 25-22, 15-12 victory over Northwestern on Sunday inside Maturi Pavilion, the future of the program was watching from the front row.

Stella and Olivia Swenson, the twins out of Wayzata, have verbally committed to the U for the Class of 2024. They sat alongside four verbal commitments for the Class of 2025: Jordan Taylor from Houston, McKenna Garr from Rush City, Carly Gilk from Champlin Park and Kelly Kinney from West Palm Beach, Fla.

Wedged among those six was a tantalizing possibility: opposite hitter Abigail Mullen of Kansas City, Mo. — considered the No. 1 recruit for 2025 — who is yet uncommitted and a major target of the Gophers.
Click to expand...
 

Was there confusion at the end of set 3? Were there challenges at set point??
 

Hrothgar said:
Was there confusion at the end of set 3? Were there challenges at set point??
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There were two. The first one was after Shaffmaster sent a perfect set to Northwestern. The Wildcat player smashed the ball down and clearly hit the net on the down stroke. Challenge was upheld on what would've been set point. Then Cook unsuccessfully challenged the out call on the next set point.
 




Not on real TV again until Oct 26. I made the correct decision to not get BTN+ this year.
 

Nice to get a win. Disappointing that it was a great struggle. They are poor at concentrating. They panicked a couple of times, especially to give NW that huge ( 14 pt?) run. Where would they be without Lydia Grote. She is the only one playing close to her potential. On the plus side, they have cut their service errors in half (7) and got 12 aces.
 

Grote is the only pin hitter on the team with a short memory. KCook didn't have a lot of choices during the long Northwestern run, but he could have swapped Grote in for Hanson to give them a different backrow hitting option.

Sangiacomo was keyed in on Landfair/Wucherer in serve receive and hit her spot every time.

The 14-0 run is a microcosm for their season. They're sometimes humming along like a top 10 team and then when they hit a rough patch they're transformed into a middling Big Ten squad and they don't snap out of it.

Anybody who watched the Ohio State NCAA tournament game last year knows you can't put it all on KCook. They did the same thing last year in that game.
 

Murr and Grote are the only things keeping this team alive. Has been true all season.

Schaff can set a nice backset and a nice fast set to the OH, when she gets dime passes. Too bad this year our OH can't do jacks__t with them unless we're playing Michigan.
 

Who would have thought that the RS set/kill would be "money in the bank" for this team this season? Wucherer, Grote, Hanson, and Landfair have all had a part in it. All of our opponents have focused on shutting down Landfair and Wucherer at OH leaving Grote open. We can't or don't run a slide or set the middles and very seldon set a bic....so I would feed that RS more times than we have.

Totally agree about Grote and Murr. There is another saying, "mind over matter" and rIght now both of our OH's don't have that.
 

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