Gopher Volleyball 2023 Season

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So are we signing anyone else?? Or is it going to be a long dry spell of news until the fall?
 



let'sbeclear said:
Might Cook's coaching of the U-19 Pan-American team for the next couple of weeks have put signings on the back burner?
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I doubt that it hurts anything. His staff can keep in contact with potential recruits. He can call a recruit if they need to "set the hook." The fact that he is coaching the U-19 is an endorsement of his coaching credentials and will help with recruitment not hurt it.
 


REALITY of the situation, if we do not add an EXPERIENCED DS to this roster -

1 - I for one am hoping our players can turn the corner this upcoming season while being 6R pins - Wucherer, Crowl, Hanson and/or Schnichels. Grote and Landfair are the only 6R pins coming into this season with said experience.....I am talking about 6R STARTING PINS.

2 - Murr's bringing a lot to the table as our starting Libero. However, I keep reading elsewhere that she is great at digging, but not so much at passing. The latter is what many of us keep saying we need....a great passer for Shaff to be a more consistent setter.

3 - Our only DS/L on the roster other than Murr, is Gray. She has been extremely limited to playing time. Just keep it in mind, we have a lot of players who will be improving their back court game this upcoming season, as they gain DS experience.....a player's development takes time.

4 - Unfair NCAA rules that teams cannot begin practice until 2-3 weeks before season starts just adds to this situation. This Gopher Team, as it stands, has a lot of talent and they will be a fun team to watch. It just takes time for it to come together on the court.

Lastly, there is no doubt in my mind we have a NEW fantastic coaching staff who will only add their knowledge to this already winning and successful volleyball program.
 
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4EverAGopher said:
REALITY of the situation, if we do not add an EXPERIENCED DS to this roster -

1 - I for one am hoping our players can turn the corner this upcoming season while being 6R pins - Wucherer, Crowl, Hanson and/or Schnichels. Grote and Landfair are the only 6R pins coming into this season with said experience.....I am talking about 6R STARTING PINS.

2 - Murr's bringing a lot to the table as our starting Libero. However, I keep reading elsewhere that she is great at digging, but not so much at passing. The latter is what many of us keep saying we need....a great passer for Shaff to be a more consistent setter.

3 - Our only DS/L on the roster other than Murr, is Gray. She has been extremely limited to playing time. Just keep it in mind, we have a lot of players who will be improving their back court game this upcoming season, as they gain DS experience.....a player's development takes time.

4 - Unfair NCAA rules that teams cannot begin practice until 2-3 weeks before season starts just adds to this situation. This Gopher Team, as it stands, has a lot of talent and they will be a fun team to watch. It just takes time for it to come together on the court.

Lastly, there is no doubt in my mind we have a NEW fantastic coaching staff who will only add their knowledge to this already winning and successful volleyball program.
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Assuming all teams start their season at roughly the same time, why is this rule unfair?
 



Calissa Minatee MB #14 playng now for the U19 Pan American Cup Team vs. Mexico in Puerto Rco.

Airing on YouTube...Subscribe to IQ TV..it is Free.
 
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USA vs Mexico final was supposed to begin at 5 pm. Costa Rica and Puerto Rico are only in the 3rd Set and are very evenly matched teams. PR has not been able to put together two points since the match was 13-11 in their favor. Both teams have burned their time outs since then. Seriously, PR goes up one and CR ties it up. Set finally goes to PR 29-27,

PR up 2-1 sets. Going to be quite awhile before the Championship match.
 

Game on....Minatee just scored on a slide and USA up 16-7. Glad she is a Gopher. She just served us out for the win in set 1 25-8. We scored 6 straight on her serve.
 

KCook started entirely different players for set two. Tied at 5-5,

Now tied at 8-8 and Minatee enters game. She just makes a huge difference in the middle for team USA. We are now up 16-11.

Minatee rotates out and USA having trouble putting the ball away....up 19-15....21-15 with TO for Mexico.

Minatee re-enters and USA wins 2nd set 25-18.
 
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Starting set 3 without Minatee playing. USA up 4-0 and Mexico takes TO.

Up 7-5 and KCook switches out setters.

Score now with USA leading 16-10. Mexico doing a much better job digging everything. I like their Libero.

USA takes set three 25-18, KCook played several different USA players the last two sets.

Championship goes to Team USA 3-0.
 
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Waiting for the Fall Schedule to be released. In the meantime, posters paste together the pre-season schedule based on other team's posted schedules. Here we go...

HOME - Baylor* [8/26] and TCU* [8/25]

HOME - Texas* [8/30]

AWAY - Florida [guessing weekend of 9/1 - 9/3?]

AWAY - Stanford and Oregon [9/8 / 9/9 per Ohio St posting] We hosted the BIG/PAC Challenge last year.

HOME - Creighton* [9/16] and High Point* [9/17? (Creighton vs High Point is 9/15)] This is the Diet Coke Classic.
 

4EverAGopher said:
Waiting for the Fall Schedule to be released. In the meantime, posters paste together the pre-season schedule based on other team's posted schedules. Here we go...

HOME - Baylor* [8/26] and TCU* [8/25]

HOME - Texas* [8/30]

AWAY - Florida [guessing weekend of 9/1 - 9/3?]

AWAY - Stanford and Oregon [9/8 / 9/9 per Ohio St posting] We hosted the BIG/PAC Challenge last year.

HOME - Creighton* [9/16] and High Point* [9/17? (Creighton vs High Point is 9/15)] This is the Diet Coke Classic.
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Schedule info should have its own thread. One of the primary benefits of a volleyball board is that we can dispense with or at least reduce the unwieldy length of multiple topic season threads
 

Everybody is still waiting and hoping on news of another DS added to the roster. It just doesn't appear that will be happening. I sure hope I am wrong, but with the coaching change and many STARTING LIBEROS already committed to other colleges for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, it is going to be really really tough for us to land a 4 year Libero. We might be looking at the 2025 class.

Unfortunately, the Gopher volleyball program has been the recipient of too many decommit(s) (Nebraska and Penn State) , transfer (Wisconsin), players visiting and deciding to go elsewhere (Wisconsin) or players deciding to quit college after their first semester. This has all happened in the past 3 years in the L/DS positions.

With a whole new coaching staff, for me personally, this cannot turn around fast enough.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
Schedule info should have its own thread. One of the primary benefits of a volleyball board is that we can dispense with or at least reduce the unwieldy length of multiple topic season threads
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WHAT????? This is PRE SEASON information only.
 

4EverAGopher said:
Everybody is still waiting and hoping on news of another DS added to the roster. It just doesn't appear that will be happening. I sure hope I am wrong, but with the coaching change and many STARTING LIBEROS already committed to other colleges for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, it is going to be really really tough for us to land a 4 year Libero. We might be looking at the 2025 class.

Unfortunately, the Gopher volleyball program has been the recipient of too many decommit(s) (Nebraska and Penn State) , transfer (Wisconsin), players visiting and deciding to go elsewhere (Wisconsin) or players deciding to quit college after their first semester. This has all happened in the past 3 years in the L/DS positions.

With a whole new coaching staff, for me personally, this cannot turn around fast enough.
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What former starter Libero is going to come here to be a DS?

Gray is solid enough. I'm good rolling with her as the DS, and Murr as L. She's as good as Kilkelly.


Pins like Hanson would've transferred out by now if they weren't going to be here for Fall. But suspect it will be way too crowded and we're going to lost 1-2 very talented pins. Good problem to have.
 


Comment on gophers_4_life loading up on ALL-STAR teams and winning a natty-

I agree that Wisconsin has now taken over 2nd place right behind Nebraska in the BIG becoming an All-Star team and I am not expecting them to ever look back. IMO Sheffield will do whatever it takes to remain on top and doing it with the transfer portal.

To name a few, Penn State, Louisville, Pitt and Kentucky have all faired quite well, with the transfer portal and 5th year Grads. I say watch out for Penn State this upcoming season. I think they are looking scary good.

Nebraska to me is more like Stanford. They both can recruit just about any volleyball player BY NAME ALONE and have not really depended on the portal. But as we all know, that can easily change moving forward.

RIGHT NOW AS OUR ROSTER STANDS, we should have another winning season and my personal prediction is a 3rd place finish in the BIG. IMO we have a lot of new moving parts and lack of consistent experience in the back court going into the season. I am hoping I will be wrong....and if I am , I will be the first to admit it.

Let the disagreements and discussions begin.
 

4EverAGopher said:
Everybody is still waiting and hoping on news of another DS added to the roster. It just doesn't appear that will be happening. I sure hope I am wrong, but with the coaching change and many STARTING LIBEROS already committed to other colleges for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, it is going to be really really tough for us to land a 4 year Libero. We might be looking at the 2025 class.

Unfortunately, the Gopher volleyball program has been the recipient of too many decommit(s) (Nebraska and Penn State) , transfer (Wisconsin), players visiting and deciding to go elsewhere (Wisconsin) or players deciding to quit college after their first semester. This has all happened in the past 3 years in the L/DS positions.

With a whole new coaching staff, for me personally, this cannot turn around fast enough.
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I think it's unlikely that a DS is added to the roster, for a couple of reasons:

a) The window to enter the transfer portal closed on May 15th. There are 2 windows to enter the portal. The first is 45 days after the tournament selections are made (11/28/22 to 1/11/23). The second is from 5/1/23 to 5/15/23. Of course, there could be a student athlete that is already in the transfer portal that is yet to commit.

b) I don't think that U of M has any of the 12 scholarships left (Awoleye, Crowl, Davis, Grote, Hansen, Landfair, McGhie, Minatte, Murr Schaffmaster, Schnichels, Wucherer).
 

mpokrandt said:
I think it's unlikely that a DS is added to the roster, for a couple of reasons:

a) The window to enter the transfer portal closed on May 15th. There are 2 windows to enter the portal. The first is 45 days after the tournament selections are made (11/28/22 to 1/11/23). The second is from 5/1/23 to 5/15/23. Of course, there could be a student athlete that is already in the transfer portal that is yet to commit.

b) I don't think that U of M has any of the 12 scholarships left (Awoleye, Crowl, Davis, Grote, Hansen, Landfair, McGhie, Minatte, Murr Schaffmaster, Schnichels, Wucherer).
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This is more than likely very true about the scholarships. It is very unfortunate about the DS/L positions in the past few years how this program was not able to retain recruits for that position. We need Murr and I for one am hoping she does not sustain an injury during the 2023 season. Next year this program will be in the same position, seeking a starting Libero, unless something changes.

As the roster currently stands, we will be seeing either 2 or 3 6R pins for this team. Fans will need to keep an open mind when it comes to our starting pins growing into the backcourt part of their game.
 

4EverAGopher said:
This is more than likely very true about the scholarships. It is very unfortunate about the DS/L positions in the past few years how this program was not able to retain recruits for that position. We need Murr and I for one am hoping she does not sustain an injury during the 2023 season. Next year this program will be in the same position, seeking a starting Libero, unless something changes.

As the roster currently stands, we will be seeing either 2 or 3 6R pins for this team. Fans will need to keep an open mind when it comes to our starting pins growing into the backcourt part of their game.
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True. However, it's important to remember that Choboy was committed to MN before the coaching change.
 

mpokrandt said:
b) I don't think that U of M has any of the 12 scholarships left (Awoleye, Crowl, Davis, Grote, Hansen, Landfair, McGhie, Minatte, Murr Schaffmaster, Schnichels, Wucherer).
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The only one thing is: I thought there was maybe some doubt about if Awoleye was a "for sure" good to go on being eligible this fall? Perhaps had to submit a waiver? Of course, at a minimum the idea being that the coaching staff she played for last year left. In fact, I believe we hired one of the coaches.

Guessing we would've heard something if it wasn't going to work out, so probably not expected to be an issue.


And you don't even list Gray as one of the 12, either!


It's possible both Landfair and Wucherer could be left in as 6 rotations.

Stupid. Fantasy land Olympic style. This is college for a reason! Championships are won by DS'ing and specializing.
 

At least one, maybe two, of Grote, Crowl, and Hanson are going to be contributing very little this season, with Wucherer and Landfair locked in on the left side. Depends if we do a 6-2 double sub or stick to the 5-1. I suppose in the former case, we do need to save subs.
 

Gophers_4life said:
The only one thing is: I thought there was maybe some doubt about if Awoleye was a "for sure" good to go on being eligible this fall? Perhaps had to submit a waiver? Of course, at a minimum the idea being that the coaching staff she played for last year left. In fact, I believe we hired one of the coaches.

Guessing we would've heard something if it wasn't going to work out, so probably not expected to be an issue.


And you don't even list Gray as one of the 12, either!


It's possible both Landfair and Wucherer could be left in as 6 rotations.

Stupid. Fantasy land Olympic style. This is college for a reason! Championships are won by DS'ing and specializing.
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The 12 players I listed are my best guess at who is on scholarship.
 

mpokrandt said:
The 12 players I listed are my best guess at who is on scholarship.
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Your list makes perfect sense. I doubt Gray was on scholarship last year, since we had Kilkelly.

Coaches be like "you did very well at Libero this spring! Nice job! Oh, and we're bringing in someone to replace you from the transfer portal, and the Libero scholarship will be going to them. Oh, and we're brining in a 5th pin hitter and the 12th scholarship will be going to them. Oh and, we're running a 6-2 and both Landfair and Wucherer want to pretend they're in the Olympics instead of college anyway, so you won't be DS'ing anyone out."
 

I thought I read some time ago that Gray was a walk-on. Therefore, she more than likely is not on scholarship nor will be.

There is activity happening with 2025 recruits and, of course, it is with Texas and Nebraska plus others. It just doesn't change, nor will it. Jordan Larson has just been hired as Nebraska Assistant Coach and will be joining that program some time in September. She played for the Cornhuskers during her college career and anybody that follows the sport knows her outstanding contribution to USA Women's Volleyball.

I personally have not heard a word on Gopher recruiting. The end of this upcoming season there are 4 Gophers who are Seniors and 1 Grad. It will be interesting to see what this coaching staff has in mind. Will they choose to keep the 4 Seniors on scholoarship for a 5th year? Right now I am leaning toward that, with no no word on 2024 recruits besides the Swenson twins.

For me any news on 2025 Gopher recruits isn't coming fast enough.
 

I am reading that it sounds like KCook and the coaching staff have probably reached out to some of the players he coached on the U19 Pan Am recent roster. The Libero, Keri Leimbach, is from Lincoln, NB, and just committed yesterday to Nebraska and her Club MB teammate, Natalie Wardlow, to Wisconsin.

Let's wait and see, if we land any of the OH's or MB's from this roster.
 
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