Spring Season & Roster 2023

[Ignatius L Hoops]

2023 Volleyball Roster - University of Minnesota Athletics

The official 2023 Volleyball Roster for the University of Minnesota Gophers

gophersports.com

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

2023​

#	Full Name	Pos.	Ht.	Academic Year	Hometown / High School	Hometown	Previous School
2	Sydney Schnichels	Outside/Opposite	6-4	Fr.	Willmar, Minn. / Willmar	Willmar, Minn.
3	Mckenna Wucherer	Outside	6-1	So.	Brookfield, Wis. / Brookfield Central	Brookfield, Wis.
4	Lauren Crowl	Opposite	6-4	R-So.	Eagan, Minn. / Eastview	Eagan, Minn.
5	Melani Shaffmaster	Setter	6-3	Sr.	New Castle, Ind. / New Castle	New Castle, Ind.
10	Elise McGhie	Setter	5-10	Sr.	Kansas City, Mo. / St. Teresa's Academy	Kansas City, Mo.	Kansas
11	Chloe Ng	Setter	5-9	R-Fr.	Vancouver, B.C. / York House	Vancouver, B.C.
12	Taylor Landfair	Outside	6-5	R-Jr.	Plainfield, Ill. / Plainfield Central	Plainfield, Ill.
15	Skylar Gray	Libero/DS	5-10	Jr.	Maple Grove, Minn. / Maple Grove	Maple Grove, Minn.
16	Calissa Minatee	Middle Blocker	6-1	Fr.	Kansas City, Mo. / North Kansas City	Kansas City, Mo.
20	Arica Davis	Middle Blocker	5-11	Jr.	Hillsborough, N.C. / North Raleigh Christian Academy	Hillsborough, N.C.	Ohio State
22	Julia Hanson	Outside/Opposite	6-1	So.	Savage, Minn. / Prior Lake	Savage, Minn.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Tough to do full on scrimmage with only 2 middles, 3 outsides, and one backrow.

Do we have more freshmen coming in the fall?

 

[Gopher68]

Tough to do full on scrimmage with only 2 middles, 3 outsides, and one backrow.

Do we have more freshmen coming in the fall?

No other recruits or transfer players have been announced.

 

[MNBob]

Tough to do full on scrimmage with only 2 middles, 3 outsides, and one backrow.

Do we have more freshmen coming in the fall?

The two freshmen will be starting early this month. Sydney Schnichels at right side and Calissa Minatee at middle blocker.

 

[Gophers_4life]

The two freshmen will be starting early this month. Sydney Schnichels at right side and Calissa Minatee at middle blocker.

Right, but those are already known and listed on the spring roster, and included in my two middles.

Crowl and Schnichels give us two solid frontcourt right sides, and I expect them to battle for that starting spot. I would assume a DS will be needed for whichever wins, but maybe not? Or maybe we won't have a DS to spare for that?

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

 

[GopherVB23]

Sounds like Gopher Volleyball is heading to Hawaii in March and will play two matches against Hawaii there, March 7 & 8.

 

[gwbbfan82]

Sounds like Gopher Volleyball is heading to Hawaii in March and will play two matches against Hawaii there, March 7 & 8.

View attachment 23625

Darn it. Sitting at the Maui airport to go home. 🫤

 

[GopherJack]

Work those jump serves ladies!

 

[Gophers_4life]

Sounds like Gopher Volleyball is heading to Hawaii in March and will play two matches against Hawaii there, March 7 & 8.

View attachment 23625

That's a nice treat!

So would going to Italy to play/work on Vball there, things like that.

Love to see it!

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

That's a nice treat!

So would going to Italy to play/work on Vball there, things like that.

Love to see it!

I hope we see this more as countries opening up after the pandemic. Indiana Volleyball went to Europe last summer and the Gophers went to Japan and Puerto Rico a few years ago.

 

[GopherVB23]

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

View attachment 23866

If that AU matchup is at the Pav, I might stop by and check it out.

 

[Bfan]

Athletes In Leadership: Taylor Landfair​

Athletes In Leadership: Taylor Landfair - University of Minnesota Athletics

2022 Big Ten Volleyball Player of the Year Taylor Landfair shares her thoughts on "Sustainability" in the latest episode of Athletes in Leadership presen...

gophersports.com

Athletes In Leadership: CC McGraw​

Athletes In Leadership: CC McGraw - University of Minnesota Athletics

In our premiere episode of Athletes in Leadership features Gophers Volleyball athlete CC McGraw discussing her experience being a Gopher student-athlete ...

gophersports.com

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

 

[4EverAGopher]

Just a FYI -

My understanding from the past at the Open USA Tryouts is that the White Wave is considered the top tier, then the Red Wave and lastly the Blue Wave.

AM Sessions today - Crowl, Shaffmaster and Wucherer were in the White Wave and Davis in the Blue Wave.

PM Sessions today - Shaffmaster and Wucherer remain in the White Wave. Crowl is now playing in the Red Wave and Davis remained in the Blue Wave.

If interested, these can be viewed on a BallerTV subscription.

 

[4EverAGopher]

Final Waves this morning at USA tryouts.

White Wave players are:

Anita	Anwusi	LSU	MB	B-0
Raven	Colvin	Purdue	MB	B-9
Anna	Dixon	Florida	OPP	BK-69
Sophie	Fischer	Georgia	MB	B-14
Morgan	Geddes	Indiana	OH	R-21
Mary	Georgiades	Houston	L	Y-10
Samantha	Hastings	Loyola Marymount	L	Y-12
Jordan	Iliff	Missouri	OPP	BK-75
Lauren	Jardine	Utah	OH	R-31
Breanna	Kelley	Florida	MB	B-25
Janice	Leao	Miami	MB	B-28
Erin	Livingston	BYU	OH	R-35
Jessica	Mruzik	Penn State	OH	R-38
Kennedi	Orr	Nebraska	S	G-76
Glenna Kate	Prior	BYU	OPP	BK-79
Elia	Rubin	Stanford	OH	R-46
Melani	Shaffmaster	Minnesota	S	G-80
Alexis	Stucky	Florida	S	G-83

 

[sptimes]

Final Waves this morning at USA tryouts.

White Wave players are:

Anita	Anwusi	LSU	MB	B-0
Raven	Colvin	Purdue	MB	B-9
Anna	Dixon	Florida	OPP	BK-69
Sophie	Fischer	Georgia	MB	B-14
Morgan	Geddes	Indiana	OH	R-21
Mary	Georgiades	Houston	L	Y-10
Samantha	Hastings	Loyola Marymount	L	Y-12
Jordan	Iliff	Missouri	OPP	BK-75
Lauren	Jardine	Utah	OH	R-31
Breanna	Kelley	Florida	MB	B-25
Janice	Leao	Miami	MB	B-28
Erin	Livingston	BYU	OH	R-35
Jessica	Mruzik	Penn State	OH	R-38
Kennedi	Orr	Nebraska	S	G-76
Glenna Kate	Prior	BYU	OPP	BK-79
Elia	Rubin	Stanford	OH	R-46
Melani	Shaffmaster	Minnesota	S	G-80
Alexis	Stucky	Florida	S	G-83

Interesting to see the embattled Orr hanging with the top setters. Nice to see Mel in there, too. Surprised Wucherer has slipped out of this group.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Like I've said before:

Shaff has all the other qualities that you would see in an elite setter: height, blocking, hitting, and solid defense too.

It's just the two main qualities that matter where she is not elite, at least what she has shown on the court so far. Bettering bad passes and overall quality of sets. At least to middles, she has never shown it consistently. When she gets a good pass, she can do a nice fast set to the pin.

 

[4EverAGopher]

Maybe Orr just performs so much better away from JCook. I always wonder how much the MENTAL part of a game is involved in a player's on court performances Both Hames and Evans are gone for different reasons and with all the talent Nebraska has, it will be interesting to watch their battle for the BIG title this fall.

Not surprised at all to see Shaffmaster make it to that Final White Wave Roster. I am hoping Murr stays healthy and can bring more passing consistency to Shaff's setting game. Gophers_4Life is right about the qualities she brings to the table as an elite setter. Just reminding everyone they are EXACTLY WHAT COACH KARCH IS LOOKING FOR. It will also be interesting to see if the Gopher's New Coaching Staff can improve her game where it is much needed....her connetion to the middles.

I have not seen Florida play all that much. But when I have, Stucky is going to get better as one of the Elite in the NCAA. Lastly this reminder......as disappointed we Minnesota fans can be season to season, here is another team that has not been able to get over the hump no matter how many OUTSTANDING PLAYERS are on their roster year after year after year.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Would you rather have players who are on-paper “exactly what Karch is looking for” in the style of women’s OLYMPIC volleyball, or

players who are built to and do win championships in the style of women’s COLLEGIATE volleyball???


I go latter. Hugh went former.


Ladies on the women’s national team are brilliant and incredible …. but how many collegiate natty’s did they win?

 

[NateDawgUM]

Ladies on the women’s national team are brilliant and incredible …. but how many collegiate natty’s did they win?

5 of the 12 players on the Tokyo gold medal team were National Champions in college -- it's not that rare.

 

[(R)uffda!]

What IS rare is winning the national championship. I think someone doesn't really appreciate that fact. I know someone views players and coaches as failures if they don't.

 

[Gophers_4life]

5 of the 12 players on the Tokyo gold medal team were National Champions in college -- it's not that rare.

There are 12 players on the court? Huh. Suspicious that you did it like, rather than the known starters and leaders of the team. Maybe it's 5 out of 7, but suspect it's the other way since you did it out of 12.

 

[Gophers_4life]

What IS rare is winning the national championship. I think someone doesn't really appreciate that fact. I know someone views players and coaches as failures if they don't.

How about even getting to the natty???

I'll toss out 2014 as an outlier and 2020-21 for covid. That's still 9 seasons and zero natty game appearances.

Not good enough. Not even close.

Only three national semi's. One of which we lucked into (2019). Not good enough. Not even close.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_McCutcheon#Head_Coaching_record

 

[4EverAGopher]

Interesting to see the embattled Orr hanging with the top setters. Nice to see Mel in there, too. Surprised Wucherer has slipped out of this group.

Wucherer might be a disappointment to you and others but she does need more time where she can stay healthy and show us that the back court is part of her game. She is only a sophomore.

Many pro volleyball teams have 6R OH players and that is exactly what Karch wants for the USA team. KRob-Cook, Plummer, Franti, Wilhite-Parsons, Larson, Bartsch, Hill are just some of those USA players .

This was a USA Team tryout and some of these college players that are up and coming need more time to develop their game. So Wucherer not making it to the Final White Wave in hopes of possibly being chosen to play for a USA National Team does not surprise me at all.

 

[Gophers_4life]

Many pro volleyball teams have 6R OH players and that is exactly what Karch wants for the USA team.

Because Olympic and Pro women's volleyball have relatively few subs.

Women's collegiate (in the US at least) has lots of subs.


So it's not the same thing.


Use the subs. The "littles" are critical to winning championships. Defense wins championships.

 

[4EverAGopher]

Because Olympic and Pro women's volleyball have relatively few subs.

Women's collegiate (in the US at least) has lots of subs.


So it's not the same thing.


Use the subs. The "littles" are critical to winning championships. Defense wins championships.

At this point Gophers_4life, if KCook ends up with the same coaching beliefs as Hugh, I am not sure what you are going to do.

Volleyball is changing.....how about all these HS girls well over 6' not playing basketball but switching to volleyball? College teams are seeking TALL SETTERS more now than ever. 6' on up seems to be the going height for a setter in a succesful program. Yes, the littles keep getting littler or are disappearing.

And we all know how COVID with 5th Year Grads have upset this sport having it become in some cases All-Star Teams (Pitt-Wisconsin-Texas to name a few).