Gopher Volleyball 2018

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UpAndUnder43 said:
Very few girls showed up to play. I thought SSS and Rollins we’re themselves. That is about it. I understand Rollins has some issues receiving and passing but she is fun. I like how she plays. She found a way to hit through and around blocks.

Hart, Samedy, Morgan and Pittman all struggled hitting. McGraw was not good today, especially in set 2 and 3.

Had they found a way to win set 2 (which they did before the challenge) they would have been up 2-0 and won the match.
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Pittman at times was putting it down, and Hart was hitting the hard cross sometimes. But the sheer number of times that our girls let the ball rip ... right into the hands of Oregon’s block.

I actually thought too many sets were sent over to Rollins. Yeah she hit around the block but it always seemed to be a soft blip that Oregon passed effortlessly. She did have some nice terminal hits in set 1, but after that I don’t remember her doing much.

Oregon’s girls on the other hand, could rip the ball. Especially the outsides, Stone, and the right side.
 

The short explanation is this team did the opposite of peaking at the right time. You might say they "valleyed" at the wrong time.

It's disappointing nonetheless.

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Gophers_4life said:
Pittman at times was putting it down, and Hart was hitting the hard cross sometimes. But the sheer number of times that our girls let the ball rip ... right into the hands of Oregon’s block.

I actually thought too many sets were sent over to Rollins. Yeah she hit around the block but it always seemed to be a soft blip that Oregon passed effortlessly. She did have some nice terminal hits in set 1, but after that I don’t remember her doing much.

Oregon’s girls on the other hand, could rip the ball. Especially the outsides, Stone, and the right side.
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Offense was bad all around. Pittman got blocked on 4 straight slides in one of the sets. Samedy was a non-factor. Morgan did very little.

I’m just frustrated.
 

Frustrating and disappointed. Great overall season thou, thinking our ladies have this and will be playing for a national championship.

Oregon is a good team, hope they win it all. It might make the ladies, coaches and fans feel somewhat better.

Still disappointed that this game was not on national TV!
 

Love watching them play; am bummed; and I don't understand the finer points of the sport. Question to people who do. Why was the little dink into the middle so effective and how did they need to cover it?
 


I think there were the same differences when they played them at the pre-season. MN passing/defense breaks down. Oregon's setter is a beast! She's the quarterback that not only throws on a dime, but also rushes when she needs to. They played very smart volleyball, swinging at will, and exposing MN weaknesses. The weaknesses MN has is a setter who's not the best defensive player and when in the blocking position, Samedy is right behind her. And she's not the best digger. I understand keeping Samedy rotating through the back for more offense when SSS is in the front, but you're giving up passing. And if you don't have passing, you can't utilize Samedy as another hitter regardless. Could pulling Samedy from the back row and putting in a more solid passer helped in that 3rd set?
 

I think the Gophers over-achieved this year. Didn’t some experts/publications predict them to finish 5th in the Big Ten at the start of the season? And they are a young team when you look at 5 freshmen and sophomores in the starting lineup. Contrast that with 4 seniors and 3 juniors for Oregon.

I am no volleyball expert but it sure seemed like there were quite a few times this season where opponents hit over the Gopher block quite easily during stretches of matches. Here’s a question for you volleyball pros. If net pressure is lacking, can that make the defense look worse than it is in the back row? Sort of how the football secondary can look worse than they are when no one is pressuring the opposing quarterback? The serving didn’t seem very aggressive either. Too easily received by Oregon.

Will be interesting to see how Nielsen runs the show in the spring scrimmages. They always have 2 or 3 of those, right?
 

Except for the second-seeded Gophers, the seeding committee is looking pretty good: #1, #3, and #4 made it to the Final Four, and minus the #2 Gophers, #1-#8 all made it to the regional finals.
 

We are the Minnesota Vikings of volleyball. Good but never good enough. This was a big choke job.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!
 



maroonfive said:
We are the Minnesota Vikings of volleyball. Good but never good enough. This was a big choke job.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!
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I would have to agree, so disappointed after such a great regular season.
 

let'sbeclear said:
Except for the second-seeded Gophers, the seeding committee is looking pretty good: #1, #3, and #4 made it to the Final Four, and minus the #2 Gophers, #1-#8 all made it to the regional finals.
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Not that hard though, when all the national titles are won by Nebraska, Penn St, and Stanford!
 

Gophers_4life said:
Not that hard though, when all the national titles are won by Nebraska, Penn St, and Stanford!
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If Stanford plays to potential, everyone is playing for second place. That being said, not getting into the the Final Four was absolutely deflating and a terrible end to a great year. Insult to injury for me was it had to be my undergrad arch rival that knocked us out.
 

beavergopher said:
Insult to injury for me was it had to be my undergrad arch rival that knocked us out.
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Adding insult to injury to me was that a team we swept this year beat Oregon in straight sets. Granted the Ducks were almost certainly experiencing a letdown, but man.
 



maroonfive said:
We are the Minnesota Vikings of volleyball. Good but never good enough. This was a big choke job.

Go Gophers !!!!!!!!!!!!
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This is such a load of self-deafeating B.S. This is acceptance of mediocrity. That is the problem in Minnesota.

I have gone through it with the Twins, the Vikings, the North Stars, the Gopher football team, men's basketball, both hockey teams, wrestling and now volleyball. When the going gets tough, it's because people are against us or better than us, when it really is that we have to work harder, be more focused, be more intense and be better prepared to get over the hurdle in front of us.

We need to quit giving away, our part in not making it happen. Failure sucks, it hurts, it is embarrassing, it is not what we wanted to be. We need to be more persistent, more determined, more prepared for that next time we find ourselves on a championship path.

This should fuel the next drive rather than dampen it. We are better than we played and we need to show it.

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Do you know how hard it is to win a Natl Title in a sport like Women's hockey, with it's 30 teams? It's VERY hard. Only 4 different teams have done so, so far.

Now imagine if there were twice as many teams, like in Men's hockey? Now again, imagine that there are twice as many as that, like in college football? Now imagine that there is THREE TIMES as many as that, like there is in sports like college basketball and women's college Volleyball. Now granted, in each of these sports, there are simply teams that will never have a chance, but it's still not easy to win Natl Titles, and if it was, would they be worth so much to the players, coaches, and fans?



If the Gophers add a Women's VB Natl Title to their trophy case sometime in the next 5-10 years, they will be among one of only a handful of schools with so many Natl Titles in so many different sports. They already rank up there among a small handful. Not talking overall # of Titles, just the diversity of sports they've won titles in. Could Softball pull one off? Yes, they really could. But same as with VB, it won't be easy. And with the hiring of Whalen, she could possibly add a Women's BB Natl Title Trophy to the Case as well? The Men have all done it, just not in a while and maybe never again, but at least we can have true hope that our women may be able to pick up some of the slack?
 


All six main starters are AA, and the regionals and final four were in Minny. Just more salt in the still open wound.

Stanford wins the championship over Nebraska. Yawn. I won't be watching.
 

Illini gagged away a 2-0 lead. Neb. comes through in the clutch. Should have been us getting a chance to lose to Stanford.
 

beavergopher said:
Illini gagged away a 2-0 lead. Neb. comes through in the clutch. Should have been us getting a chance to lose to Stanford.
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Yes. It should have been us, but it's not and the returning players need to figure out how to get back to an Elite Eight or Final Four.

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Ewert86PC said:
Yes. It should have been us, but it's not and the returning players need to figure out how to get back to an Elite Eight or Final Four.
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Figure out what?

Honestly, what could we have done differently this year??? We had six AA. Great coach. One of best setters in nation. And we were home the entire way.

There was nothing to figure out. We choked as hard as a team could possible choke, against Oregon. And they played the game of their lives.
 

Ewert86PC said:
This is such a load of self-deafeating B.S. This is acceptance of mediocrity. That is the problem in Minnesota.

I have gone through it with the Twins, the Vikings, the North Stars, the Gopher football team, men's basketball, both hockey teams, wrestling and now volleyball. When the going gets tough, it's because people are against us or better than us, when it really is that we have to work harder, be more focused, be more intense and be better prepared to get over the hurdle in front of us.

We need to quit giving away, our part in not making it happen. Failure sucks, it hurts, it is embarrassing, it is not what we wanted to be. We need to be more persistent, more determined, more prepared for that next time we find ourselves on a championship path.

This should fuel the next drive rather than dampen it. We are better than we played and we need to show it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
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A number 2 seed losing to 15 seed is a big time choke job. It is even worse to have it happen at home. If this were basketball you would never hear the end of it. This is not settling for mediocrity. Sports is entertainment. We need to be better at our entertainment.
 

I have admittedly mixed feelings about this season, only because of how it ended. Obviously, we were all expecting/hoping for a run to the Final Four and a possible national title. It didn't happen. And whether or not you can attribute it to choking, I don't know. Personally, I attribute it to peaking early and then being extremely tense during the match against Oregon.

With that said, I have a hard time calling a 19-1, Big 10 title team a failure.

As is almost always the case, it's a mixed bag. But I'll still look back on this team with fond memories, regardless of whether they "choked" or not.
 

MRJ said:
I have admittedly mixed feelings about this season, only because of how it ended. Obviously, we were all expecting/hoping for a run to the Final Four and a possible national title. It didn't happen. And whether or not you can attribute it to choking, I don't know. Personally, I attribute it to peaking early and then being extremely tense during the match against Oregon.

With that said, I have a hard time calling a 19-1, Big 10 title team a failure.

As is almost always the case, it's a mixed bag. But I'll still look back on this team with fond memories, regardless of whether they "choked" or not.
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Sadly, there seems to have been a change in college athletics, where winning your conference title is not as prestigious as going deep into the national tournament.

Seeing teams that fared worse in conference play, and who we swept in conference play, go deeper in the tournament than us is disheartening. It's like we we merely a sparring partner to them.

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MRJ said:
I have admittedly mixed feelings about this season, only because of how it ended. Obviously, we were all expecting/hoping for a run to the Final Four and a possible national title. It didn't happen. And whether or not you can attribute it to choking, I don't know. Personally, I attribute it to peaking early and then being extremely tense during the match against Oregon.

With that said, I have a hard time calling a 19-1, Big 10 title team a failure.

As is almost always the case, it's a mixed bag. But I'll still look back on this team with fond memories, regardless of whether they "choked" or not.
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I thought the 2018 Gophers fell off in performance drastically after the second Wisconsin match. In the next match they came out for warmups looking 'dead' on their feet, and they never played a complete match again the rest of the season. NCAA success is almost always based on who's hot at the end of the season, not the middle of it. In my non-volleyball mind, MN has trouble against the Stanfords & Oregons and similar teams because MN isn't TALL-AND-ATHLETIC enough. MN needs more players with Samedy's athleticism and about 3-4 more inches of length. That's a tall order, but necessary for winning the NCAA title.
 

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