Gopher Volleyball 2022 Season

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A nice sweep of Michigan as we continue to witness Carter Booth develop into a force. Booth had 11 kills and four blocks. Taylor Landfair picked up the offensive slack with Wucherer unavailble. Landfair hit .500 with 20 kills. Next up: Illinois in Champaign.
 


Why? You had a comfortable leading in the fourth. Just went on an emotional roller coaster ride with the Vikings and now I gotta sit through a five setter.
 


A fourth set collapse led to a crazy fifth set 15-13 win. Everyone needs a heart pounder now and then.
 






Seeing as our RS is not producing this year, I am grateful for Pedro joining the coaching staff because our Middle Game has certainly played a huge role in our wins this season. Without him, I would say "not so much".

Wucherer is the only player that seems to be able to hit from the RS with effectiveness. Crowl has some brilliant moments, but not enough to keep her as a starter.

This season has solidified for me how much SS could make Lemonade out of lemons the entire time she played Opp. Remember fans, we have had the same setter for three seasons now. This team doesn't have that 6R Opp that we were so fortunate to have for 5 seasons. What If she was still here playing for us this season? One can only dream.
 

GibsonSG said:
I don't think it's as simple as you are making it out to be. Retention of a few superb talents? Who besides Barnes was a huge loss for the Gophers?

And slow movement downward in the standings? There was some definite forum pants-pissing at the start of this season after the Gophers started 1-3.....and the Gophers still finished tied for 3rd in a very strong big ten conference this year. A conference that had a lot of veteran players returning. That's now 9 out of 10 years that Hugh's teams have finished tied for 3rd or better in the Big Ten.

The Gophers will have an extremely talented roster the next 2, possibly 3, years. When these current players are juniors, seniors, and possibly 5th year players.....if they can't achieve any Final Fours or conference championships.....then I will share in your concerns.
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It might be time to share those concerns? In 2022 no conference title for 4 years, no Final Four for 3 years (not yet anyway), an apparent 4th-place 2022 finish in the BIG, the loss to NE of a much-sought-after committed recruit, the HC's unexpected resignation, who-knows-what transfers out in the wake of the HC's departure, uncertainty as to why he's leaving the job in the first place after signing a contract extension. I don't think the HC was hired to finish tied for 3rd or 4th in the conference. Of course, somebody must finish at or near the middle, but only a couple years ago I hear the AD say on TV that the HC had the program building toward a NT. We can all hope for that from the next HC.
 


This is another issue. I don't feel we have had a SOLID CORE of players for some time now in Minnesota. Hugh's most success came early on in his career at Minnesota. SSS was the setter and the Tapp twins etc. etc. etc. all played Club Volleyball together. We have had individual success since then but not as much as a TEAM. You need the right 6-8 girls playing together for SOME TIME with a Common Goal for it all to come together.

As much as I don't like the fact Wisconsin won with 5- 5 Year players, it is the main reason they won a National title. The transferring in of Civita from Wichita State and Barnes from Minnesota SOLIDIFIED THEIR BACK COURT and it was just a matter of winning the title. COVID more or less guaranteed them another year to get the job done and we all know they did.

We don't have the back court to win a title. In fact, for whatever reason(s), it has been going in the opposite direction since COVID. Appiani chose to leave Minnesota and not play in her first Semester. Barnes as we all know transferred after her Sophomore year because of no scholarship offer. Morioko decommitted to Penn State and now Choboy decommitted to Nebraska. ALL WERE HIGH DS/L RECRUITS IN THEIR CLASS.

Like I said, Hugh was unable to get our back court in a position to win. That to me is his biggest downfall as our HC.
 



ClassOf98Gopher said:
Is there uncertainty?

McCutchen took what he determined to be a better job for him and his family - at our own University no less! We can’t really whine about that can we?
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Who's whining? What I hear posters here & on VT stating is their strong wish for (and a belief in the possibility of) a better and even more successful MN VB program, extending all the way up challenging for a NT. I'd say what many posters, me included, are clearly asking is whether the AD & HC share this vision for the program any longer? If so, how does the HC announcing his resignation in mid-season with no named successor further that vision? And what psychological impact might the head coach's choosing "a better job for him and his family" have on the athletes he's personally recruited to help further the program? Sure, coaches jump ship all the time, but if the HC chooses not to stay, why expect new athletes to come here or present ones to remain? If the U has a grander scheme in mind, the fan base & season ticket holders might deserve to know it.
 

NCAA RPI through Sunday's (11-6-22) matches:

1 Texas
2 Louisville
3 Stanford
4 Nebraska
5 Ohio State
6 Pittsburgh
7 Wisconsin
8 'Florida
9 San Diego
10 Kentucky
11 Minnesota
12 Oregon
13 Baylor
14 UCF
15 Creighton
16 Marquette

22 Purdue
23 Penn State
29 Northwestern
49 Michigan

72 Illinois
88 Indiana
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Is Kenna okay? I haven’t heard anything but the fact that she hasn’t been dressing the past couple of games is concerning, especially with her injury at the beginning of the year…
 

IMGopher said:
Is Kenna okay? I haven’t heard anything but the fact that she hasn’t been dressing the past couple of games is concerning, especially with her injury at the beginning of the year…
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I have no concrete information, but I noticed in one of the photos on twitter that her right thumb was heavily taped.
 

The end game of the conference season is going to be really interesting to watch. Wisconsin finishes at Nebraska and at Ohio State, so it's going to come down to the end.
 

mnvballdad said:
The end game of the conference season is going to be really interesting to watch. Wisconsin finishes at Nebraska and at Ohio State, so it's going to come down to the end.
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Pitt-Cards rematch will be fun, other than that it’s all B1G! I think our two chances to turn this year into something are Penn St and Nebraska. Those are the days I see the biggest possibility of starting a top 10 win streak. Anybody paying attention knows we’ve got the talent, the question is how much we can tighten up and put ourselves in a good position to win come tournament time
 

IMGopher said:
Pitt-Cards rematch will be fun, other than that it’s all B1G! I think our two chances to turn this year into something are Penn St and Nebraska. Those are the days I see the biggest possibility of starting a top 10 win streak. Anybody paying attention knows we’ve got the talent, the question is how much we can tighten up and put ourselves in a good position to win come tournament time
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Finger crossed, but I don't have a ton of confidence that our back row play is going to allow for that. I hope I'm wrong.
 

Gopher68 said:
I have no concrete information, but I noticed in one of the photos on twitter that her right thumb was heavily taped.
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Would anyone be really surprised if she was in the portal after the season ends?
 


mnvballdad said:
Would anyone be really surprised if she was in the portal after the season ends?
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I’ve been worrying about this, my only hope is if she feels enough of a connection to the staying coaches and players. From the (quite limited) perspective I’ve had, she does seem to really love being a part of the community. That may just be me clinging to any shred of hope, though.
 

mnvballdad said:
Finger crossed, but I don't have a ton of confidence that our back row play is going to allow for that. I hope I'm wrong.
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I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on with CC because, while she obv isn’t the only issue, 2021 CC might be enough to fill out this team. I’ve looked at the blocking differences (ex, comparing the gap left by samedy) and found that the same balls are getting through. My only two ideas left are a) she doesn’t have as much time to prep because she’s a grad student and b) maybe putting so much pressure on the speed of the offense has led to her taking more risks. We certainly played cleaner in the tight Michigan game (or was it MSU) after we slowed things down. Thoughts?
 

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IMGopher said:
I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on with CC because, while she obv isn’t the only issue, 2021 CC might be enough to fill out this team. I’ve looked at the blocking differences (ex, comparing the gap left by samedy) and found that the same balls are getting through. My only two ideas left are a) she doesn’t have as much time to prep because she’s a grad student and b) maybe putting so much pressure on the speed of the offense has led to her taking more risks. We certainly played cleaner in the tight Michigan game (or was it MSU) after we slowed things down. Thoughts?
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I'd be happy with a clean serve receive tbh. But yeah, it's weird. CC obviously has gone through some things and, while she's been an amazing representative for this team and university, she hasn't been the same player since.
 

mnvballdad said:
Would anyone be really surprised if she was in the portal after the season ends?
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I for one would not be surprised. We will soon see who decides to transfer out. Going to assume up to 2 pins might just decide to do that. If everybody stayed, with Sydney signing, we will be up to 6 pins.
 

I want more than ever whoever is the HC to bring in 2-3 DS/L and hope they all want to be here and play together. Develop these girls into a solid group of back court players. We have the hitters and have always had the hitters. IT IS WAY PAST TIME WE GET OUR BACK COURT SET UP CORRECTLY. OUR PASSING NEEDS TO IMPROVE. Also, this should help Shaff become even better at setting. RIght now she is doing a lot of running around that court.
 

4EverAGopher said:
I want more than ever whoever is the HC to bring in 2-3 DS/L and hope they all want to be here and play together. Develop these girls into a solid group of back court players. We have the hitters and have always had the hitters. IT IS WAY PAST TIME WE GET OUR BACK COURT SET UP CORRECTLY. OUR PASSING NEEDS TO IMPROVE. Also, this should help Shaff become even better at setting. RIght now she is doing a lot of running around that court.
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100% this. It doesn't matter how great a setter we have, somebody out of system can only do so much. Nothing bothers me more than when we aren't perfectly in system on a free ball, which has happened a lot this year. My only concern is that we do need to close that gap blocking the pins (as well as get more than two hands up down the middle) to set that back court up for success. To repurpose Fleck's term, complementary volleyball.
 

mnvballdad said:
The end game of the conference season is going to be really interesting to watch. Wisconsin finishes at Nebraska and at Ohio State, so it's going to come down to the end.
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Even though they won't be playing for the B1G title, the Gophers still got a a lot to look forward to at the end of the regular season. Three matches against ranked team, if they win at least two of those three then they will definitely get a top 8 seed going into the NCAA tournament.
 

4EverAGopher said:
I want more than ever whoever is the HC to bring in 2-3 DS/L and hope they all want to be here and play together. Develop these girls into a solid group of back court players. We have the hitters and have always had the hitters. IT IS WAY PAST TIME WE GET OUR BACK COURT SET UP CORRECTLY. OUR PASSING NEEDS TO IMPROVE. Also, this should help Shaff become even better at setting. RIght now she is doing a lot of running around that court.
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But then we lose all those cool and neat backrow attacks that win us so many games! :rolleyes:
 

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