STrib: Recruiting Kelly Kinney and Carly Gilk

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Gophers get two volleyball recruits for 2025 class who could have easily gone elsewhere

New Gophers volleyball coach Keegan Cook has commitments from a pair of 6-2 hitters. The interesting part? Cook cut one from a team he's coaching and the other really wanted to <i>leave</i> Minnesota.

www.startribune.com

Jeff Day:

The new Gophers volleyball coaching staff had a few things working against them as they tried to land verbal commitments from two of the best hitters in the country for the Class of 2025.

Kelly Kinney, a 6-2 outside from West Palm Beach, Fla., had made the U.S. U19 National Team roster for the Pan American Cup that was led by Keegan Cook this spring. But before the team traveled to Puerto Rico and eventually won the championship, the Gophers coach cut Kinney from the final roster.

"I didn't take the news well," Kinney said. "But I mean no one in my position would."

Then there was Carly Gilk, a 6-2 left-handed opposite at Champlin Park, who seemed to have all the makings of a stay-at-home top Minnesota volleyball recruit — except she didn't have much interest in the Gophers.

 

[GopherVB23]

Interesting that Gilk had no interest in staying in MN yet the coaches somehow reined her in.