Gopher Volleyball 2022 Season

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MRJ said:
Looks like she's legit. Led the Buckeyes in blocks and hit .327 from the middle a year ago.

Only 5-11, but from her numbers, I think we can assume she's pretty springy. Maybe similar to Taylor Morgan?? I would take that in a heartbeat.

Anxious to see what she can add.
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Her hight is listed at 5'11" on Ohio St. website but other places she is listed between 6'1"-6'2" see links below. Various scenarios why they would play down her height but regardless she can play. She was the 7th best blocker in the B1G last season. I was a little confused because the picture above makes it look like she graduated but unless she had a ridiculous amount of AP classes (this was her Freshman season) that wouldn't be possible.

https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/roster/arica-davis/
http://trianglevolleyball.club/college-placements-sports-recruits/#
https://sportsrecruits.com/athlete/arica_davis

https://nitter.pussthecat.org/OhioStateWVB/status/1466085221825236996

Height looks more than 5'11" here: https://twitter.com/OhioStateWVB/status/1451728058826649602
 

gophersports.com

Minnesota Adds Transfers Davis, McGhie to 2022 Roster - University of Minnesota Athletics

The University of Minnesota volleyball program has announced the additions of Arica Davis and Elise McGhie to its 2022 roster.
gophersports.com gophersports.com

The official announcements and who's here for spring practice:
MINNEAPOLIS -- The University of Minnesota volleyball program has announced the additions of two mid-year transfers to its 2022 roster. Arica Davis (Middle Blocker; Hillsborough, N.C.) and Elise McGhie (Setter; Kansas City, Mo.) have arrived on campus for spring practice and are eligible to practice with the team immediately. Davis and McGhie each have three years of eligibility remaining.

A 5-foot-11 middle blocker out of North Carolina (North Raleigh Christian Academy), Davis comes to Minnesota after spending her first collegiate season at Ohio State University. A 2019 PrepVolleyball.com All-America Honorable Mention, Davis stepped on campus as a top 50 recruit according to multiple recruiting services. She had an excellent freshman season in Columbus, leading OSU to a Sweet 16 appearance while ranking first on the team in blocks per set (1.28). She played in 33 matches (114 sets), averaging 1.53 kills per set while hitting .327. Davis tallied five-or-more kills 19 times in 2021, including two 10+ plus kill matches. She posted 31 multi-block matches this past season, including 10 matches with five-or-more blocks. Her best performance of the season was a 13-kill, four-block match vs. Notre Dame in a five set win on Sept. 19.

"Arica is a talented middle blocker with a proven history of success," McCutcheon said. "She will add some great depth and experience to our program."

McGhie, a 5-foot-10 setter, (St. Teresa's Academy), comes to Minnesota after playing her first two seasons at Kansas, appearing in 46 matches and playing in 164 sets. As a freshman in 2020-21, she averaged just over 8.0 assists per set and finished the year with 51 kills and eight service aces. She recorded 40-or-more assists five times, including back-to-back matches with 47 and 48 assists, respectively. This past fall, she appeared in 24 matches, tallying 6.0 assists (second on the team) and 0.17 aces per set. The best game of her career came against Wake Forest on Sept. 3, 2019, when she tallied 50 assists, seven digs and three kills in a five set win. Three times she posted 40+ assist efforts as she helped the Jayhawks reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for just the third time in school history. Because of the free year due to COVID-19 in 2020-21, McGhie still has three years of eligibility remaining. "Elise is a great setter who is strong in all phases of the game. She's a wonderful addition to our program," McCutcheon said.

Minnesota began practicing again this week as the 2022 spring semester gets underway. The Gophers return eight athletes who started matches in last season's run to the NCAA Regional Final. The 'U' finished No. 7 in the final AVCA Poll, its seventh straight top-10 finish nationally. Three of Minnesota's four members of its top-10 ranked freshman class will be on campus this spring as well to practice with the returners. Carter Booth (Denver, Colo.), Julia Hanson (Prior Lake, Minn.) and Mckenna Wucherer (Brookfield, Wis.) are the freshmen spring enrollees. Hanson was the Star Tribune's 2021 Metro Player of the Year while Booth and Wucherer were both named Under Armour All-Americans and the Gatorade Player of the Year in their respective states. Wucherer is the No. 1 ranked recruit nationally in the 2022 class.
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For years, since she committed and therefore appeared on my radar, I knew Wurcherer was highly ranked. I sure didn’t know she was going to come in with some rating services having her at number 1 recruit of 2022 in the entire nation.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
For years, since she committed and therefore appeared on my radar, I knew Wurcherer was highly ranked. I sure didn’t know she was going to come in with some rating services having her at number 1 recruit of 2022 in the entire nation.
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Will be interesting to see who will play at the pins.

Wenaas, Landfair, Wucherer, Crowl, Hansen, Glenn. Should be a great competition!
 






Let me preface that I haven't seen Naya or MSU play the last couple of seasons but she is statistically one of the top players on MSU. She hit .311 last season in 366 attempts so definitely fills a need. 132 blocks with 13 solo. Will be interesting to see how she fits in as a grad transfer.
 

I don't believe she is going to be here for this spring, so will not be on campus until the summer.

That puts Husemann in a really unfair and unfortunate situation. She's the obvious candidate to be one of the middle starters, probably M2 where she played last season, with Wolf and Booth fighting for M1.
 




bvmsports.com

Mckenna Wucherer has Olympic dreams but is focused on Minnesota for now

BROOKFIELD, Wis. (BVM) — Mckenna Wucherer has a U.S.A. Olympic flag next to her bed that she looks at every night before falling asleep to remind her of where she wants to take her volleyball career. “That’s my goal,” Wucherer said. “To make it to the Olympics and even win a gold medal.” The...
bvmsports.com bvmsports.com

I don't think this was posted before. It's an article on McKenna Wucherer from last October.

When she was 8, Wucherer made the U10s team at Milwaukee Sting. That was the first sign Wucherer was destined to be great at the sport and just four years later, she and her U12 team made it to AAU nationals and took third.

“That’s when recruiting started to get going and I was like, ‘Wow all these coaches, these top coaches see a lot of potential in me,’” Wucherer said. “After that moment I believed in myself from there on.”

Wucherer’s recruiting process started at an early age, but she did have help. Both of her older sisters play volleyball at the collegiate level at Southern Utah and Northern Kentucky. Their advice helped her throughout the process, but one school always stood out to Wucherer, the University of Minnesota.

“Once I stepped onto Minnesota’s campus it felt like home,” Wucherer said.

Her relationship with the players and the coaches was something she couldn’t find at other schools. There was also the connection that Gophers head coach Hugh McCutcheon had with Team USA, having coached both the men’s and women’s national teams in the Olympics and winning medals with both. He is still the only coach in the U.S. to win medals with both teams.

All of it pointed her towards Minnesota and her end goal of the Olympics. In fact, Wucherer is so excited to join the Gophers that she is graduating from Brookfield Central early and will be on campus in January.

“I’m just super excited to get into collegiate volleyball, top level volleyball,” Wucherer said. “Just playing in the Big Ten is such a different atmosphere. It’s a really fast game and I’m super excited for it.”

Wucherer has been preparing for it for a long time. Aside from her club volleyball play, her training with Team USA and her work with her high school, she says she lives at the weight room.
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kstp.com

Gophers volleyball winter workouts feature three big-time freshmen

The Minnesota Gophers are reloading once again on the volleyball court. Coach Hugh McCutcheon landed three freshmen that will make an immediate impact this year. All three graduated high school early in order to join the Gophers for winter workouts. ***Click the video box above to watch...
kstp.com kstp.com

Interviews with Hugh and Julia Hanson, McKenna Wucherer and Carter Booth

The Minnesota Gophers are reloading once again on the volleyball court. Coach Hugh McCutcheon landed three freshmen that will make an immediate impact this year. All three graduated high school early in order to join the Gophers for winter workouts.

McKenna Wucherer was the No. 1 2022 recruit in the country, per Prepvolleyball.com. She committed to the Gophers in 8th grade. She was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Wisconsin for 2021.

Julia Hanson is from Prior Lake high school and she had numerous college offers.

Carter Booth is a 6-foot-7 middle blocker out of Denver. Booth’s father, Calvin, is a former Minnesota Timberwolves player and is the current general manager of the Denver Nuggets. Booth was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Colorado for 2021.

“These freshman will have a chance to contribute for us this season. It’s helpful that all of them enrolled early at the “U” and that we have some great veteran leadership to help show them the ropes of how we do things here,” said McCutcheon.

McCutcheon is entering his 11th season as the Gophers head coach
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For anyone who's been to some of the scrimmages, how are some of the lineups working out?
 


JacksonMedford said:
For anyone who's been to some of the scrimmages, how are some of the lineups working out?
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I went to the Pav scrimmage. It's probably way too early to tell anything, but it was kind of surprising that when the Gopher reserves played most of one set, St. Thomas was very competititve -- almost played the Gophers even.
 



i also don’t see wolf on the spring roster. assume she saw hussman, 2 transfers and booth as too much and transferred out, as well?
 

At least one person didn't care for my post on the need to recruit. Well, this program continues to do that and for all the right reasons. We may not have won a Natty, but we are a proven Top 10 program before Hugh was hired and since he has been .

A top 8 finish last season was a pleasant surprise considering injuries and absolutely no middle game to speak of for this program. So Hugh has transferred in two very experienced established middles in Davis and Gros, with the latter now on campus.

What I have witnessed this Spring is an improvement in this area. However, IMO it will still fall on the shoulders of our starting setter, Shaffmaster, to make it all come together....whether it be with Husemann, Booth, Davis or Gros as the starters at middle.

Let's not forget we also have a NEW Middle Coach who started this Spring. Anyway, again IMO there shouldn't be anymore excuses for not having a middle game. The pieces to the puzzle are there, it now needs to come together.

We fans should be ready for another exciting Volleyball season in Gold Country.
 
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4EverAGopher said:
At least one person didn't care for my post on the need to recruit. Well, this program continues to do that and for all the right reasons. We may not have won a Natty, but we are a proven Top 10 program before Hugh was hired and since he has been .

A top 8 finish last season was a pleasant surprise considering injuries and absolutely no middle game to speak of for this program. So Hugh has transferred in two very experienced established middles in Davis and Gros, with the latter now on campus.

What I have witnessed this Spring is an improvement in this area. However, IMO it will still fall on the shoulders of our starting setter, Shaffmaster, to make it all come together....whether it be with Husemann, Booth, Davis or Gros as the starters.

Let's not forget we also have a NEW Middle Coach who started this Spring. Anyway, again IMO there shouldn't be anymore excuses for not having a middle game. The pieces to the puzzle are there, it now needs to come together.

Us fans should be ready for another exciting Volleyball season in Gold Country.
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Great post.

Doesn't matter how good our pins are, if you have no middle hitting game then you have a ceiling on how well your team can do. I mean, top 8 is still great.

But, we've been there and done that.

This program deserves and is so thirsty for the big one, especially after the stinking Badgers got to win one with 5th year seniors who wouldn't have been there without covid.
 

Wisconsin's success happened yes because they had a boat load of Grad Seniors, but also well established DS/L positions that accurately, for the most part, got the ball to a well established Setter, who then could set her pins and a 6'7" Middle who would score at least 9 out of 10 times with a slide.

Sheffield was smart in bringing in Clark, Barnes and Cavita. IMO they get the credit for Wisconsin successfully winning a Natty before the Gophers. The game starts in the backcourt.

Hugh does not think/coach the same way as Sheffield and Cook who have very strong backcourts. Hugh likes 6R players and to develop them. His most success lies with the pins (Santana-Wilhite-Hart-Samedy). Wenaas, Landfair and Wucherer will all be on their way to great Pro careers after college too.

I also feel he developed the transfer setter, Miller, during her short time as a Gopher. Shaffmaster is Hugh's starting setter and she needs to connect with her middles no matter what the pass to her is like.....she just does.

CC and Kilkelly are his backcourt. Hugh starts his starters from year to year. Once a starter, you for the most part will continue to be a starter. CC was a highly ranked Libero and his most highly ranked Libero will be joining the program in 2023. Kilkelly was an OH/Setter before playing at the U of MN and has developed extremely well as a DS/L.

IMO the HC needs to put together 7-9 players that can run a Volleyball game like a well oiled machine to win a Natty (no injuries etc.). Everything needs to fall into place and that has not yet happened with Hugh. Here's hoping this up coming season and 2023 will be his most successful.

****How did I ever forget about MB Pittman. Shame on me for not remembering her extremely successful journey as a Gopher.*****
 
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