Match 1: Gophers v Stanford in Milwaukee (9-1-24)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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gostanford.com

Season Starts in Milwaukee

No. 5 Stanford opens the 2024 season with four matches in Milwaukee, including two at Fiserv Forum.
gostanford.com gostanford.com

The Cardinal play four matches in Milwaukee

STANFORD, Calif. - No. 5 Stanford begins the 2024 season on Friday at Milwaukee at 4 p.m. PT on ESPN+. The Cardinal will then take part in the State Farm® Women’s College Volleyball Showcase over Labor Day weekend at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. Stanford faces No. 18 Minnesota on Sunday at Noon PT on FS1 and No. 3 Wisconsin on Monday at 2 p.m. on FOX. The Cardinal closes out the trip at No. 24 Marquette on Wednesday.

SERIES AGAINST THE OPPONENTS: Friday will be the first meeting between Stanford and Milwaukee. The Cardinal is 12-3 all-time versus Minnesota, defeating the Gophers in four sets last season at Maples Pavilion. Stanford is 5-0 against the Badgers, most recently sweeping Wisconsin for the 2019 NCAA Championship in Pittsburgh. The Cardinal is 2-0 all-time against Marquette with the most recent meeting coming in 2010 at the Stanford Invitational.

2023 SEASON IN REVIEW: Stanford closed out the 2023 season with a 29-4 overall record and a 24th conference championship with a 19-1 mark in the Pac-12. The Cardinal made its 42nd NCAA postseason appearance in 43 seasons, advancing to its 17th regional final since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1998.
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gostanford.com

Stanford sweeps Milwaukee in season opener

Led by junior Elia Rubin, No. 5 Stanford swept Milwaukee, 25-20, 27-25, 25-17, Friday, in the season opener for both teams at the Klotsche Center.
gostanford.com gostanford.com

The Cardinal warmed up for Minnesota by sweeping the Panthers

MILWAUKEE – Led by junior Elia Rubin, No. 5 Stanford swept Milwaukee, 25-20, 27-25, 25-17, Friday, in the season opener for both teams at the Klotsche Center.

As a team, Stanford (1-0) hit .361 and finished with 47 kills, seven aces and 5.0 blocks. Milwaukee (0-1) hit .177 and posted 29 kills, five aces and 5.0 blocks. Both teams tallied 32 digs.

Rubin had a match-high 14 kills on .458 hitting to go with five digs and two aces. Middle blocker Sami Francis added eight kills on a .500 clip and four blocks, including two solo.

Freshman Taylor Yu made her Stanford debut at setter, filling in for senior Kami Miner who was unavailable for Friday’s contest. The Temple City native totaled 40 assists, three digs, two kills and had an ace on match point to seal the win.

Also making their collegiate debuts for the Cardinal were redshirt freshman outside hitter Ipar Kurt, freshman middle blocker Lizzy Andrew and freshman defensive specialist Malyssa Cawa. Kurt turned in 11 kills on .308 hitting, seven digs, two aces and a block. Andrew registered six kills on 10 errorless swings to hit .600, while Cawa appeared in one set and collected a dig.

Fifth-year libero Elena Oglivie anchored the Cardinal defense with eight digs and notched two assists. Opposite Jordyn Harvey added six kills, four digs, two aces and a block. Defensive specialist Anna Pringle finished with four digs.

Senior Taylor Beaven appeared in the second and third sets, while graduate transfer Charity McDowell made her Stanford debut in the third.

Milwaukee was led by outside hitter Madi Malone, who had eight kills, seven digs and two aces.

Up next, Stanford takes on No. 18 Minnesota (FS1) and No. 3 Wisconsin (FOX) on Sunday and Monday, respectively, in a pair of nationally televised matches at Fiserv Forum.
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gophersports.com

No. 18 Gophers Open Season 53 at State Farm Volleyball Showcase - University of Minnesota Athletics

The No. 18 Minnesota Golden Gophers open their 53rd season in program history with the State Farm Women's College Volleyball Showcase at Fiserv Forum.
gophersports.com gophersports.com

MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- The No. 18 Minnesota Golden Gophers open their 53rd season in program history with the State Farm Women's College Volleyball Showcase at Fiserv Forum. The Gophers will take on No. 5 Stanford on Sunday and two-time defending champion and top-ranked Texas on Monday. Both matches are set to be televised on FS1.

In December, Intersport and FOX announced a partnership to bring nationally prominent women's volleyball programs to network television during Labor Day Weekend when Minnesota, Stanford, Texas and Wisconsin meet for the early season showcase event. The programs have combined for 13 national championships, 17 runner-up finishes and 48 Final Four appearances. The teams have combined to win four of the last five national championships and at least one of the four programs has appeared in the Final Four annually since 2012.

GAME INFORMATION
No. 18 Minnesota vs. No. 5 Stanford
Sunday, Sept. 1
2 p.m. CT
Fiserv Forum
Milwaukee, Wis.
TV: FS1 Connor Onion (Play-By-Play), Emily Ehman (Analyst) and Michelle McMahon (Sideline)
Live Stats

GAME INFORMATION
No. 18 Minnesota vs. No. 1 Texas
Monday, Sept. 2
6:30 p.m. CT
Fiserv Forum
Milwaukee, Wis.
TV: FS1 Connor Onion (Play-By-Play), Emily Ehman (Analyst) and Michelle McMahon (Sideline)
Live Stats

NOTES TO KNOW
4,000 -- Redshirt Senior setter Melani Shaffmaster is just 27 assists from 4,000 in her career. She would be the eighth Gopher ever to reach 4,000. She's one of four Gophers in history to record 3,500 career assists and 1,000 career digs.
1,000 -- Lydia Grote totaled 10 kills to pass 1,000 career kills Dec. 1 against Utah State. She posted 727 in her three years at California and 282 at Minnesota.
215 -- Keegan Cook won his 200th career match as a head coach on Aug. 26, 2023 vs. Baylor. He'll be looking for wins 216 and 217 this weekend against Stanford and Texas.
42 -- The Gophers are 42-10 all-time in season-opening games. They have won their last two season-openers.
28 -- 2023 marked the Gophers' 28th all-time NCAA appearance. Only 10 schools have made more postseason trips than the 'U'.
28 -- The 'U' clinched its 28th straight winning season with a win over OSU on Nov. 18. The last time they didn't have a winning season was in 1995 (13-17, 7-13 Big Ten). In the 53-year history of Gopher volleyball, the team has had only five losing seasons.
24 -- The 'U' made its 24th NCAA Tournament in the last 25 seasons, including its ninth straight, in 2023.
18 -- Melani Shaffmaster led the Big Ten with 19 double doubles last season. She has 59 in her career, the most of any setter in the Big Ten. She ranks 15th among all active D1 players in assists.
14 -- The Gophers have won at least one postseason match in 14 straight NCAA Tournaments. The last time they were eliminated in the first round was in 2007 (3-1 loss to Sacramento State). The Gophers are 27-1 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
13 -- When making the NCAA Tournament, the 'U' had made at least the Sweet 16 13 straight times before last season.
16 -- Phoebe Awoleye ranks No. 16 among active DI players with 1.24 blocks per set. She ranks 31st with 471 total blocks.
9 -- The Gophers have had nine straight seasons winning over half of their B1G games, dating back to 2014 (9-11). Minnesota has had winning conference seasons in 21 of the last 22 seasons.
8 -- Melani Shaffmaster ranks 8th all-time in Gophers history with 3,973 career assists. She ranks 16th among active DI players. Her 10.00 assists per set put her at No. 24.
1 -- Minnesota is looking for its first win over Stanford since 2021 (NCAA Tournament Second Round) and first over Texas since 2017 (3-1 win in Austin, Texas)
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Either the arena is super quiet or Zeynep is loud as hell lmao. She is digging everything and looks much improved.
 


Gophers gut out the 1st set 28-26 after leading 24-19.
 

Keep it going ladies!!!
 

Wish the Gophers would take more swings. Also, while Z was digging everything earlier, her passing will need to improve.
 

Set 2 to Stanford 25-23. Too much tipping from the Gophers to basically give Stanford free balls.
 



Gophers take set 3 in dominate fashion 25-16. Close this thing out!
 

And then Stanford flips the script and dominates MN 13-25. Ouch! It's going 5.
 


You saw flashes of brilliance, but also a lot of those same mistakes as last season. Their serve-receive was iffy at time also inability to close out points. It was a good first match, but need to clean up a lot before facing Texas.
 



This match was so winnable but alas, just don't seem to have the players that are clutch down the stretch. Too much free ball tipping for my taste. You're basically giving your opponent a free ball opportunity to score. Play to win, don't play to not lose.
 

Moments of brilliance. Good blocking and middle kills. Did a lot of good digging and receiving in the first three sets. Got out of sorts in the 4th and 5th sets. They had 23 service errors. That is the same script as the first half of last season. Serving is something that they should have practiced in the off season--it only takes a basket of balls and two people to practice serving to each other.
 

Great blocking. Need to keep the middle involved in the offense later in the match when things are getting tighter (but you need to pass well for this).

Team hit pretty efficient. Wucherer needs to stop being afraid of the block. It is OK to get blocked sometimes. Take a rip at it, make the blockers execute. Only tip when you see the opposition cheating and you can create chaos or win the point with the tip.

Service errors are fine because it means you're serving tough and if you don't, the other side is probably going to side out at a high clip anyway. That said, 23 service errors is too many.

They won't beat Texas tonight. Try to win a set.

It's a long season, few things matter as little in December as the results around Labor Day.
 

Very disappointing. Stanford was not good and the Gophers still found a way to lose. And I am so tired of serving specialists who cannot serve in, let alone well.

I would guess serving will get much better. I don't know about passing. And MW needs to swing away like Julia. If not, I'm not sure they can afford to not play Acevedo. Or Thibault as the libero. In short, either you pass better or you take more aggressive swings.
 




Well, I take it back. Most of it anyhow. Not the serving specialist part or the need to take better swings. But they passed great against Texas, except for g4. Great bounce back for both Z and Wookie.

Intentionally posting in this thread.
 

I didn't get to watch this one live. When I peeked at the score throughout, my initial thought was, "uh-oh, probably the same old team, same old problems we've seen in the recent years."

But after watching the replay, I thought they looked definitely improved over last year's team despite the loss. A few less errors in serving and serve receive and this match would have been won. The Gophers outhit Stanford .302 to .222

A warmup match before this one might have helped, but I suppose one could argue that the Iowa State exhibition was that.
 

I take back my take back. They just have too many weaknesses and they are trying too many things that just do not work.

Unfortunately I don't see how it can be fixed. They could burn Stella's redshirt I guess but I'm not sure if that's going to help.
 

And they don't have anyone like a Sarah Franklin like Wisky does that can bail them out when the sets get tight. Hanson may develop into that but everytime Wucherer goes up to attack I cringe.
 

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