Gopher Volleyball 2016

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Ignatius L Hoops

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http://www.gophersports.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/053116aaa.html

The schedule is out! We finish with four home matches. The last two: Nebraska followed by Wisconsin.

The Golden Gophers will play against 14 opponents that made the 2015 NCAA Tournament field, six in non-conference action and eight in Big Ten play. Minnesota begins the 2016 season at the Stanford Invite, Aug. 27-28, when it plays San Diego and Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. The Gophers travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 2-3, where Minnesota will face Florida State, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech. For the third-straight year, the Gophers will play in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and face Louisville and North Carolina, Sept. 9-10, in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Gophers close out the non-conference portion, Sept. 16-17, when they host their annual Diet Coke Classic, Sept, 23-24, when North Dakota, Toledo and Wisconsin-Green Bay visit the Sports Pavilion.

The 2016 Big Ten season starts at home against Maryland and Ohio State, Sept. 23-24. Minnesota will be on the road for the next three-straight when it travels to Indiana (Sept. 30), Purdue (Oct. 1) and Penn State (Oct. 5). The Gophers are home for one game against Northwestern, Oct. 9, before another four-match road stretch. Minnesota travels to Wisconsin (Oct. 12) and Michigan State (Oct. 15) before trekking to Iowa (Oct. 21) and Nebraska (Oct. 23).

Minnesota closes out conference contests with the next seven of 10 at home. The Maroon and Gold host Rutgers and Penn State, Oct. 28-29, followed by Indiana, Nov. 2. The Gophers have three away contests at Maryland (Nov. 6) before they close out the Big Ten road portion at Illinois and Northwestern, Nov. 12-13. Four-straight home matches close out the regular season, starting with Michigan and Michigan State, Nov. 18 and Nov. 20. The Gophers finish the regular season when Nebraska (Nov. 23) and Wisconsin (Nov. 26) come to town
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
http://www.gophersports.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/053116aaa.html

The schedule is out! We finish with four home matches. The last two: Nebraska followed by Wisconsin.

The Golden Gophers will play against 14 opponents that made the 2015 NCAA Tournament field, six in non-conference action and eight in Big Ten play. Minnesota begins the 2016 season at the Stanford Invite, Aug. 27-28, when it plays San Diego and Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif. The Gophers travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 2-3, where Minnesota will face Florida State, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech. For the third-straight year, the Gophers will play in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and face Louisville and North Carolina, Sept. 9-10, in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Gophers close out the non-conference portion, Sept. 16-17, when they host their annual Diet Coke Classic, Sept, 23-24, when North Dakota, Toledo and Wisconsin-Green Bay visit the Sports Pavilion.

The 2016 Big Ten season starts at home against Maryland and Ohio State, Sept. 23-24. Minnesota will be on the road for the next three-straight when it travels to Indiana (Sept. 30), Purdue (Oct. 1) and Penn State (Oct. 5). The Gophers are home for one game against Northwestern, Oct. 9, before another four-match road stretch. Minnesota travels to Wisconsin (Oct. 12) and Michigan State (Oct. 15) before trekking to Iowa (Oct. 21) and Nebraska (Oct. 23).

Minnesota closes out conference contests with the next seven of 10 at home. The Maroon and Gold host Rutgers and Penn State, Oct. 28-29, followed by Indiana, Nov. 2. The Gophers have three away contests at Maryland (Nov. 6) before they close out the Big Ten road portion at Illinois and Northwestern, Nov. 12-13. Four-straight home matches close out the regular season, starting with Michigan and Michigan State, Nov. 18 and Nov. 20. The Gophers finish the regular season when Nebraska (Nov. 23) and Wisconsin (Nov. 26) come to town
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Great Non-conference schedule again.

The seven out of ten on the road to open will be tough on a team with a new top pin hitter, but having SSS at setter & Rosado and Schau in the back should help a lot.
 

With the season opening!!!! at Maples (San Diego on Saturday and Stanford on Sunday) here's a Volleyball Mag.com B1G preview:

http://volleyballmag.com/big-ten-preview-harder-to-win-than-a-national-championship/

You want to win the NCAA volleyball championship? The odds are you will have to beat someone from the Big Ten.

Never was that more apparent than last December when half the national semifinals were made up of eventual-champion Nebraska and Minnesota. What’s more, Wisconsin, Penn State, Ohio State and Illinois — which lost to Minnesota — all made it to the round of 16.

This year should be no different.

Consider the AVCA preseason poll that ranked Nebraska No. 1, Minnesota 3, Wisconsin 4, Illinois 14, Ohio State 15, Purdue 20, and you get the picture.

“The Big Ten is probably harder to win than a national championship because it’s over 10 weeks,” Nebraska coach John Cook said.

Minnesota preview:

Minnesota won the Big Ten regular-season title last season and while it lost its hitting star, Puerto Rican Olympian and conference player of the year Daly Santana, the roster is pretty stout. Start with sophomore setter Samantha Seliger-Swenson, the league’s freshman of the year, add in the senior Tapp sisters, first-team All-American middle/right side Hannah Tapp and middle Paige, and that’s a pretty good start. Junior libero Dalianliz Rosado led the team in digs, senior Sarah Wilhite was fantastic in the NCAA Tournament, and, well, fifth-year coach Hugh McCutcheon has a experienced team that has as much talent as anyone.

“Our 2016 roster has experience, talent and depth. The team continues to build on the great foundation laid by our 2015 squad and is developing an impressive capacity for work. Our incoming freshman have made a seamless transition and our seniors are providing great leadership,” said McCutcheon, who coached the USA men to the 2008 Olympic gold medal and the 2012 women to the silver.

“It will be another epic year in the Big Ten. The quality and parity of the teams in this league is amazing. Every night will be a battle.”
 

http://www.startribune.com/tough-ea...w-what-gophers-volleyball-team-has/391469141/

Hugh McCutcheon won't be surprised if the 2016 season starts off a lot like it did last year — with losses.

It might sound odd to hear the Gophers volleyball coach foreshadowing his team falling early, especially since he returns 13 players, including five starters, from the program's first Final Four appearance since 2009.

McCutcheon, in his fifth year, would rather see weaknesses exposed early. The Gophers suffered two losses to open 2015 but rolled to 24 wins in the next 25 matches, including 15 consecutive victories en route to a Big Ten title last year.

"I hope we get into trouble," McCutcheon said this week. "That's why we schedule the way we do. I'd rather know now what are our biggest opportunities for improvement rather than when we get into conference play."....



...No Santana means no sure-fire outside threat entering this season. Santana ranked sixth in the nation with 584 kills in 2015. The first-team All-America outside hitter and member of Puerto Rico's Olympic team also led the Gophers in points (654.5) and aces (39).

Minnesota had to figure out different ways to get Santana going last year. If she had an off night — which didn't happen often — that usually meant the offense struggled...


...Seliger-Swenson, last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year, had opportunities to play for Team USA internationally this summer. But she remained home to build better chemistry with her teammates.

The former Hopkins standout wanted to continue learning their tendencies to see who might be her go-to hitters this season.

"Spreading the ball around and trying not to be super readable and predictable is really what's going to help us this year," Seliger-Swenson said. "This summer I think being a setter you have to get to know everybody and all of your hitters and really build those relationships".
 

http://www.usdtoreros.com/sports/w-volley/recaps/082616aaa.html

Today's Gopher opponent, San Diego, rallied to defeat Stanford last night.

- The University of San Diego women's volleyball team rallies back from a 2-0 deficit, to stun No. 11 Stanford University, 3-2, Friday evening in the season-opener for both teams.

With the 22-25, 19-25, 25-18, 25-21, 15-11 win, the Toreros open the season at 1-0, and have dealt the Cardinal their first season-opening loss since the 2008 season. This also marks USD's first ever win over the Cardinal. With the loss, Stanford falls to 0-1 on the season.

Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Fuller led the USD offense with a career-high 20 kills, and she recorded a double-double with 10 digs, while also hitting for a .271 clip. Jayden Kennedy was the only other Torero in double digit kills with 13. Kristen Gengenbacher also recorded a double-double with 23 assists, and 16 digs, while Hunter Jennings managed to record 12 digs.
 


Up 2-0 right now on San Diego. San Diego isn't ranked, but overcame a 2-0 set deficit to beat 11th ranked Stanford last night 3-2. I missed the first set, but the second set tonight was pretty even up until the last few points. San Diego really gave 3 straight points to Minnesota to finish them off, with the 3rd being an ace server that San Diego watched fall in.
 

San Diego somehow saves 5 match points and win set 3 31-29.
 

Ladies say the hell with that and win the 4th set 25-16 in relative ease. I'll tell you the player that really stood out for me (not knowing anything about her) was Alexis Hart. She has a heck of a hammer when killing the ball. She made several freshman mistakes on digs, but she saw regular action and she has the best spike on the team. Good win for the Gophers to start the year.

25-19, 25-21, 29-31, 25-16
 

Pretty easy 4th set for the Gophers to win the match. Hart was pretty impressive for a freshman. She can really slam the ball home. Wilhite got the majority of the swings followed by Hart. Wilhite needs to watch her launch when hitting from the back row though, got called for at least 2 back row attacks.

Tomorrow's game is on Pac 12 Network!
 



overpass said:
Pretty easy 4th set for the Gophers to win the match. Hart was pretty impressive for a freshman. She can really slam the ball home. Wilhite got the majority of the swings followed by Hart. Wilhite needs to watch her launch when hitting from the back row though, got called for at least 2 back row attacks.

Tomorrow's game is on Pac 12 Network!
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Directv still doesn't have pac 12 network :(
 

Alexis Hart hit .462 with 14 kills. Yes she was fun to watch. Minnesota out blocked San Diego 15.5 to 3.
 

In other matches tonight. Penn State lost in five sets to future Gopher opponent, North Carolina, in Happy Valley. And in West Lafayette, Purdue dropped a five setter to Kentucky. The fifth set score was 20-18.
 

#1 Nebraska spanked #2 Texas 3-0 tonight...
 



25-23 Stanford takes the 1st set. Didn't even feel that close really as Stanford went up 8-3 early. The passing has been poor causing SSS to have tough sets at the night.
 

25-15 Stanford set 2. This doesn't look good at all! Hopefully just the affects of a back to back... Why do the Gophers keep going to Stanford anyways? Never goes well.
 

Ouch. What the hell happened today? We're getting rolled.
 

Miraculously we're going to a 4th set. 27-25 Gophers in set 3. Gophers trailed 18-10, put some subs in and rallied for a 20-19 lead. Then trailed 24-21 before scoring 4 straight with Wilhite serving and hanging on.
 


Today, we missed Santana's relentless pounding. The outside hitters were flummoxed by Stanford's block (and height) for most of the match. Both Wilhite and Hart posted 8 kills and 8 errors. It was a good match to identify weaknesses and improve rhythm. Of note: Taylor Morgan made an appearance as did Handley.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Today, we missed Santana's relentless pounding. The outside hitters were flummoxed by Stanford's block (and height) for most of the match. Both Wilhite and Hart posted 8 kills and 8 errors. It was a good match to identify weaknesses and improve rhythm. Of note: Taylor Morgan made an appearance as did Handley.
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Her leadership is lacking on this team I think. Someone is going to need to step it up and take on that role. For how poor Wilhite and Hart's numbers were for OH's it's crazy they hung around though.
 


Stanford's height was mentioned repeatedly during the broadcast. The leading Cardinal blockers were:

Lutz (6'8") with 7 blocks
Fitzmorris (6'-6") with 8 blocks
Anjanaku (6'3") with 8 blocks; plus she is Inky Anjanaku

Other blockers were:
Plummer (6-'6")
Vanjak (6'-4")
Hodson (6'-3")
 

http://www.gophersports.com/sports/w-volley/recaps/090216aaa.html

Gophers open with a sweep in Puerto Rico. Texas A&M is now 2-3 including five set losses to Ohio State and tonight's Minnesota opponent, Florida State.

The No. 6 University of Minnesota volleyball team defeated No. 14 Texas A&M, 25-18, 25-23, 25-19, tonight in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. With the win, the Golden Gophers improve to 2-1 on the season and swept their first opponent of the 2016 campaign.

As a team, Minnesota outhit the Aggies, .287 to .178 and outblocked them, 16-13. The Aggies led a slight dig advantage, 32-31, and a 42-37 kill lead. Sarah Wilhite led all attackers with 16 kills and hit .464, followed by Alexis Hart with seven and Molly Lohman with five. Lohman also led the Gophers with eight block assists. Samantha Seliger-Swenson added a match-high 34 assists, while Dalianliz Rosado had seven digs.

Minnesota concludes the tournament tomorrow night when it faces No. 16 Florida State at 7 p.m. CT.
 

Nice two matches in Puerto Rico. 6 sets to 1 over two ranked teams. Good job ladies!

They destroyed Florida St in two of the games tonight: 25-14, 26-24, 21-25, 25-12
 

Sparlimb said:
Nice two matches in Puerto Rico. 6 sets to 1 over two ranked teams. Good job ladies!

They destroyed Florida St in two of the games tonight: 25-14, 26-24, 21-25, 25-12
Click to expand...

Hannah Tapp was superb.

http://www.gophersports.com/sports/w-volley/recaps/090316aaa.html

The No. 6 University of Minnesota volleyball team earned a 3-1 win (25-14, 26-24, 21-25, 25-12) over No. 16 Florida State, tonight, to conclude the Puerto Rico Clasico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. With the win, Minnesota improves to 3-1 on the season and went 2-0 against ranked opponents this weekend. The Gophers defeated No. 14 Texas A&M in three last night.

Hannah Tapp hit .615, tied a team-high 18 kills and had a team-best six blocks. It was a season high for Tapp in kills and hitting efficiency. Sarah Wilhite had 18 kills, while Alexis Hart added a career-best 15 and hit .333. Samantha Seliger-Swenson had a match-high 54 assists. Dalianliz Rosado tied a match-high 16 digs. As a team, the Gophers hit .320 to Florida State’s .206. Minnesota also held a 55-42 dig advantage and outblocked FSU, 10-4.

Minnesota will be on the road for the third-straight week when it faces another two ranked opponents in No. 21 Louisville and No. 12 North Carolina in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Sept. 9-10. Wisconsin will also be competing in the tournament as the other Big Ten representative.
 

How did ranked B1G teams fare this weekend?

#1 Nebraska: Defeated both Iowa State and Oregon State in straight sets in Lincoln.

#2 Wisconsin: Defeated both San Diego and Texas A&M CC in straight sets in Madison.

#6 Minnesota: Defeated #14 Texas A&M (3-0) and #16 Florida State (3-1) in Puerto Rico.

#11 Ohio State: Defeated Wyoming (3-0) and lost to BYU (3-0) in Columbus.

#13 Penn State: Lost to both Colorado (3-2) and #9 Stanford (3-0) in Boulder

#17 Illinois: Lost to both #9 Stanford (3-2) and Colorado (3-2) in Boulder.

#24 Purdue: Defeated both Howard and Coastal Carolina in straight sets.
 

What happened to Penn St? Still a top 25 team, but they were unbeatable for the last 10 years.
 

Gophers got 3 of the 4 weekly awards:

Sarah Wilhite - player of the week (3rd career POTW)

Samantha Seliger-Swenson - setter of the week (3rd career SOTW)

Alexis Hart- freshman of the week (1st of many FOTW award to come this year)

Only Tionna Williams from Wisconsin ruined the sweep. She was defensive player of the week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 


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