Gopher Volleyball 2018

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We have a middle blocker problem. I'm curious why we didn't see Swider start set 3. Also not impressed with Rollins, when other team has a stud OH like Destiny Cox, Rollins will be definitely be a spot to attack. Also I agree with other people in saying Alexis Hart did not seem to have the gas or something used to seeing her have.

Hot take, I would trade Samantha Seliger-Swenson for Hunter Atherton on UNC in a heart beat. Think her reputation was made playing with one of the best senior classes in Gopher history, easy to look good when you have Tapp sisters, all world Wilhite. Felt like a lot of sets of hers in the UNC match were too cute, not in flow with her outside hitters. Also Samantha's defense is pretty mediocre, let's be real. Sara Nielsen seeing time and success would be something to watch.

Excited to see the team improve from here. But it should be known that the UNC match was much closer than 3-1 win would suggest.
 
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https://gophersports.com/news/2018/8/29/volleyball-gophers-ready-to-return-to-the-pav.aspx

IT'S GOOD TO BE HOME
The Gophers are in the midst of playing seven non-conference matches in Minneapolis this season, the most since 2002. Following the Diet Coke Classic, Minnesota hosts the Gopher Fall Classic, Sept. 13-15 at Maturi Pavilion. Green Bay and Kansas State visit Minneapolis that weekend.

DIET COKE CLASSIC HISTORY
Minnesota has been hosting the Diet Coke Classic since 1996. During that span, the Gophers have held a 53-8 record. The last loss in the DCC came in 2010 when Minnesota fell to Northern Iowa, who was ranked No. 22 at the time.

ABOUT ARKANSAS
Arkansas opened the season with a win and a loss to Kansas last weekend. The Jayhawks won the first match in Fayetteville, Ark., 3-2, but the Razorbacks defeated Kansas, 3-1, Saturday in Lawrence, Kan. With only two seniors on the roster, this young team returns three starters from last year's squad. In the two matches this season, Hailey Dirrigl has 43 kills, while Elizabeth Pamphile follows with 25 and has a team-best 15 blocks. Rachel Rippee has 91 assists and libero Okiana Valle has 42 digs.

ABOUT GEORGIA SOUTHERN
Georgia Southern opened the season at the West Virginia Invitational and dropped three matches to host WVU (3-1), Wright State (3-2), and Connecticut (3-2). Lauren Reichard had a team-best 26 kills in the opening weekend, followed by Carly Turner with 25. Lauren Hager and Reichard leads the Eagles with 19 and 17 blocks, respectively. Delaney DeCinces has 91 assists through two matches and Joscelin Morrow has 39 digs.

ABOUT NORTH DAKOTA STATE
North Dakota State opened the 2018 campaign at the Blue & White Classic in Buffalo, N.Y. The Bison dropped matches to Seton Hall (3-1) and host Buffalo (3-1), but defeated Niagara (3-0) to go 1-2 last weekend. Four Bison had 20-plus kills in the opening weekend, including Allie Mauch with a team-best 27. She also led the team with 38 digs. Kaylee Hanger had 13 blocks last week, and Kalli Hegerle added 96 assists.
 

https://www.jsonline.com/story/comm...-mckenna-wucherer-lethal-attacker/1151414002/

2022.


When Mckenna Wucherer was in seventh grade at St. Joseph’s Catholic in Wauwatosa, her father wouldn’t let her play volleyball for the school’s team.

It wasn’t because he was worried about an injury hurting Mckenna’s chances of playing in college. With two older daughters playing volleyball at the high-school level, he had nothing against the sport. She had the time in her schedule to play.

“I didn’t want her playing on the team because she was going to hurt somebody on the other side with the power she had from swinging,” Greg Wucherer says. “There were bound to be girls on the other teams just starting out, learning how to bump, and I was worried that she would hit one and it wouldn’t end well.”

Watch Mckenna Wucherer, now a freshman outside hitter at Brookfield Central, take one swing at a ball, and it becomes clear why the seventh-graders at St. Joseph’s were unable to have her as a teammate hitting on the outside.

“She’s a lethal attacker,” Lancers head coach Scott Spiess said. “Her leaping ability is amazing, and she can score points from anywhere on the court. So far, there hasn’t been anyone that has had success stopping her.”

...

Wucherer has her college plans lined up and she hasn’t even sat through her first class as a high schooler.

When Wucherer was 12, a Big Ten program -- Greg said it was not Minnesota or Wisconsin, her two top options -- reached out to her. The recruiting process only picked up from there.

“I wasn’t expecting the recruiting to happen so soon,” Wucherer said. “It just started the summer going into seventh grade and picked up really quickly.”

During multiple summer tournaments, dozens of college coaches would fill the bleachers to watch Wucherer. Mckenna shrugged the attention off. Greg was a ball of nerves.

“The whole Big Ten would be there,” Greg said. “It’s kind of overwhelming as a parent knowing that they’re there to watch your daughter play.”

Players are often recruited younger in volleyball than most other sports. When Wucherer took her visit to the Minnesota campus and eventually committed, she was five years away from enrolling as a student.

“There was a lot of attention from different schools, but it felt like home on campus,” she said. “It was still a few years away from me being in college, and I wasn’t expecting to commit so early. It just felt like the right place and the right thing to do.
 

Minnesota finished off North Dakota 11,12, 18. They easily dispatched the Bison in the first two sets. In the third, the Gophers trailed by 5 early but mounted a late comeback to send the sweaty Pav crowd into the cool evening air. It was a get it over with early type of match. Time to move on to tomorrow's double header.

Hugh used the same lineup as last week with the exception of Rollins replacing Hart. Hart did not play. Alexis was on the sidelines with a soft cast on her right wrist. Rollins had an impressive second half of the first set and played well the remainder of the match. Adanna finished the match with an ace.

Litzau also made an appearance subbing in (one I believe) to serve for Samedy.


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https://gophersports.com/news/2018/8/31/volleyball-gophers-sweep-bison-in-home-opener.aspx

The Golden Gophers were led by Stephanie Samedy and Jasmyn Martin, who had double-digit kills with 11 and 10 apiece. Regan Pittman had eight kills in 13 swings to hit .538. Martin followed when she hit .529 (10-1-17), while Adanna Rollins hit .400 (8-2-15). Rollins also led the Gophers with 10 digs. As a team, the Gophers hit .351, had 46 kills, five aces and 41 digs.
 


Man it was hot in there tonight. Rollins looked good.
 

Got a chance to watch last night and was impressed with the take no prisoners approach the ladies had in sets one and two.

Started off a little sloppy in the third, but then got it together and took care of business.

The whole team looked pretty good. Very intense and really finishing things off when they had the chance. Some of that was due to the fact that the Gophers had bigger and more explosive athletes than NDSU, but was pleased to see the ladies recognized it early and took control. Really impressed with how Rollins looked in replacing Hart in the rotation. Hopefully Lexi can come back sooner rather than later.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Hugh used the same lineup as last week with the exception of Rollins replacing Hart. Hart did not play. Alexis was on the sidelines with a soft cast on her right wrist. Rollins had an impressive second half of the first set and played well the remainder of the match. Adanna finished the match with an ace.
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So Rollins played six rotations, taking Hart's three front court rotations? I was wondering if Sheehan might get the front court rotations.
 

Rollins played all rotations. Never left the court.

Today's starting lineup versus Georgia Southern: Martin, Sheehan, Seliger-Swenson, Buford, Rollins, Pittman and McGraw.
 



Gophers defeated Georgia Southern 13, 13, 10. The third set featured a 14-0 scoring run with Rollins serving for 13 points including three straight aces. For the match, Rollins had 4 aces, 7 kills (.312), 7 digs and 2 errors.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Rollins played all rotations. Never left the court.

Today's starting lineup versus Georgia Southern: Martin, Sheehan, Seliger-Swenson, Buford, Rollins, Pittman and McGraw.
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Who was oppo, Sheehan, Rollins, or Martin?

Great to get Buford in there to play! Senior, stuck with program, low opponent, great call!
 

Gophers_4life said:
Who was oppo, Sheehan, Rollins, or Martin?

Great to get Buford in there to play! Senior, stuck with program, low opponent, great call!
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Martin hit opposite. Sheehan left side. Rollins hit left when she was in the front row. I think Martin hit opposite the whole match; although my attention waxed and waned watching the match on btn2go. I'm hydrating for returning to the Pav for tonight's match against Arkansas. NDSU and Arkansas are 1-1 heading to the third.
 





Minnesota defeated Arkansas 15, 19, 18. Tonight it was the middles, Morgan and Pittman, holding things together and controlling the match.

Pittman led the Gophers with 12 kills hitting .550. Morgan posted 4 kills hitting .333 and led the team with 8 blocks. A big thanks to Taylor and Regan for getting us out of the heat.

Alexis watch: Hart did hit some serves in warmups. But she stayed on the sidelines with the wrist wrapped.
 

Good sign. If Morgan can solidify that second middle slot, it'll help a ton.
Ignatius L Hoops said:
Minnesota defeated Arkansas 15, 19, 18. Tonight it was the middles, Morgan and Pittman, holding things together and controlling the match.

Pittman led the Gophers with 12 kills hitting .550. Morgan posted 4 kills hitting .333 and led the team with 8 blocks. A big thanks to Taylor and Regan for getting us out of the heat.

Alexis watch: Hart did hit some serves in warmups. But she stayed on the sidelines with the wrist wrapped.
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Sent from my SM-J327V using Tapatalk
 

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#2 Texas loses to Bucky in Madison.
 

I'd imagine with #1 Stanford and #2 Texas losing this weekend the Gophers will hold #1 for at least a week until the face Oregon and Stanford out there in Pal Alto.

Two thoughts: 1. Is there any college conference in any sport as loaded as the Big Ten is in volleyball? Insane amount of good teams in the Big Ten.
2. National rankings this early in the season are stupid.
 

The two freshman are fantastic. Hopefully Hart is ready to go next weekend. Always fun to beat the SEC.
 

Daize said:
I'd imagine with #1 Stanford and #2 Texas losing this weekend the Gophers will hold #1 for at least a week until the face Oregon and Stanford out there in Pal Alto.

Two thoughts: 1. Is there any college conference in any sport as loaded as the Big Ten is in volleyball? Insane amount of good teams in the Big Ten.
2. National rankings this early in the season are stupid.
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Rutgers (who always sucks in volleyball) has 4 losses on the year (3-4). The rest of the big ten (13 teams) have a combined 7 losses...
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Minnesota defeated Arkansas 15, 19, 18. Tonight it was the middles, Morgan and Pittman, holding things together and controlling the match.

Pittman led the Gophers with 12 kills hitting .550. Morgan posted 4 kills hitting .333 and led the team with 8 blocks. A big thanks to Taylor and Regan for getting us out of the heat.

Alexis watch: Hart did hit some serves in warmups. But she stayed on the sidelines with the wrist wrapped.
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How many of Pittman's kills were off that awesome slide she has going with SSS? Love those backsets to the M1 sliding.
 

Daize said:
I'd imagine with #1 Stanford and #2 Texas losing this weekend the Gophers will hold #1 for at least a week until the face Oregon and Stanford out there in Pal Alto.

Two thoughts: 1. Is there any college conference in any sport as loaded as the Big Ten is in volleyball? Insane amount of good teams in the Big Ten.
2. National rankings this early in the season are stupid.
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Well, the Big Ten coaches did have Wisconsin ahead of us in the conference poll... :rolleyes:
 


This weekend, #1 Gophs vs #4 Stanford is going to be EPIC! Hope our freshman are ready for that big time.

Surprised to see Wisconsin go all the way up to #2.
 


Daize said:
This weekend, #1 Gophs vs #4 Stanford is going to be EPIC! Hope our freshman are ready for that big time.

Surprised to see Wisconsin go all the way up to #2.
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They beat Texas this past weekend, who was ranked #2 at the time. It was in Madison, but nonetheless they won.
 

Anyone hoping to watch the Gophs this weekend, can only do so on the cable channel PAC-12 Network. If that's not part of your cable package, you can give this a shot: "fubo TV" is a streaming service, similar to Sling, YouTube TV, etc. and has a 7 day free trial. It includes the P12N.
 

https://www.facebook.com/GopherVolleyball/videos/439529049890114/

Tuesday's press conference with Hugh and Stephanie Samedy. Pretty bland questions regarding how it feels to be ranked #1. Reponse was pretty much, it's a good problem to have, but not worth much it being September. Hugh did say the team seems further along in their development in comparison to last year's squad at this time of the year. Both downplayed the significance of playing Oregon and Stanford this weekend. They respect their opponents but really are only concerned with how they are developing as a team.

No one asked about Alexis Hart which is surprising. Curious what's going on with her. Gophs are going to need her if they want to win a national title. Hope she's ok.

That all said, I will be pretty surprised if we beat Stanford this weekend. Stanford seems to be one of those programs that really seems to mentally intimidate Hugh's teams throughout the years. I would consider it a mental breakthough if we beat Stanford this weekend.
 
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Hart's thumb was heavily taped this weekend. She did participate in warm up drills.
 

https://goducks.com/news/2018/9/4/w...nents-on-tap-at-big-ten-pac-12-challenge.aspx

Oregon Notes:

Minnesota (5-0) and Penn State (5-0) will mark the third and fourth top-10 teams the Ducks (4-2) will have faced in their first eight matches of 2018; Oregon dropped a pair of hard-fought battles to then-No. 3 Texas and then-No. 2 Nebraska at the VERT Challenge to open the season. Oregon enters the first year of the four-year tournament between the Ducks, Minnesota, Penn State and Stanford on a four-match winning streak after sweeping four matches at home last week.

#18 OREGON (4-2) vs. #1 MINNESOTA (5-0)

When: Friday, September 7 | Time: 5 p.m. PT
Where: Stanford, Calif. | Venue: Maples Pavilion
TV: Pac-12 Network | Live Stats: goducks.com
All-Time Series: UMN leads, 3-2 (UMN W1) | Last Meeting: UMN won, 3-2 (2011)

About Minnesota: The top-ranked Golden Gophers enter the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge undefeated at 5-0 after sweeping the Diet Coke Classic. Minnesota will be looking to get back at the Pac-12 this weekend after falling to USC in the Sweet 16 last season. UMN is led by Stephanie Samedy's 4.15 kills per set, and Regan Pittman is hitting .483. Defensively, Minnesota is second in the NCAA with 3.41 blocks per set, and three Golden Gophers average more than 1.00 blocks per set.

...

Ducks Dominate Oregon Classic
After picking up their first win of 2018 last Tuesday vs. Portland State, the Ducks completed an undefeated weekend at the Oregon Classic in Matthew Knight Arena with dominant sweeps of Utah Valley, Long Beach State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff. SR S/RS August Raskie was named the Oregon Classic MVP after averaging 12.00 assists and 2.11 digs per set while adding four aces, six kills and six blocks. SR MB Sumeet Gill and JR RS Willow Johnson were also named to the all-tournament team. Gill hit an astounding .622 with 3.22 kills per set over the weekend, twice recording a career-high 12 kills, and Johnson averaged 3.00 kills per set on .500 hitting.

Gill, Ducks Pacing the Pac-12
Through the first five matches of 2018, SR MB Sumeet Gill leads the Pac-12 Conference and ranks second in the nation with a tremendous .541 hitting percentage. Gill is followed closely by JR RS Willow Johnson, who is fourth in the conference and 31st nationally with a .430 hitting percentage. SR S/RS August Raskie leads the Pac-12 and is fifth nationally with 12.47 assists per set, and RSO L/OH Brooke Van Sickle is first with 11 service aces and second with 0.58 aces per set. As a team, Oregon leads the Pac-12 in assists per set (14.00), kills per set (15.00) and aces per set (2.21), and is second with 16.58 digs per set. The Ducks are sixth in the NCAA in kills per set and 11th in assists per set.

Oregon Vs. Ranked Opponents
The Ducks are looking for a breakthrough against a pair of top-five opponents this weekend at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge. Oregon beat No. 5 ranked and eventual national champion Nebraska to open the 2017 season, but the Ducks finished the year 1-5 vs. ranked opponents and dropped a pair of hard-fought matches vs. No. 3 Texas and No. 2 Nebraska to open the 2018 season. Against Minnesota on Friday, Oregon will aim for its first victory over a No. 1 ranked team since the Ducks took down top-ranked Penn State in the 2012 Final Four to reach the national title match. Minnesota and Penn State will mark the third and fourth top-five teams the Ducks will have faced in their first eight matches of the season.
 

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