Gophers Cruise Into Sweet Sixteen

As expected, the top-seeded Gopher Volleyball team routed Yale 30-17 30-18 30-19 to earn a spot in the Sweet Sixteen at home in Minneapolis. Minnesota could’ve been ripe for an upset, as senior outside hitter Amanda Hokenson stepped in for senior outside hitter Trisha Bratford, as Bratford was held out for precautionary reasons after tweaking her ankle yesterday. The Gophers stayed focus, and outclassed the Bulldogs in the three game sweep.

Similar to the match against LIU, Minnesota came out fast and established big leads in games one and two. A combination of strong defense, balanced offense and timely serving helped the Gophers extinguish any chance of a Yale upset. The Gophers have now won a remarkable 22 games in a row dating back to the five game thriller in Ann Arbor nearly a month ago.

For the night, Erin Martin led Minnesota with 15 kills while hitting .333. Martin also tallied 5 blocks, including two solos. Meredith Nelson and Lindsey Taatjes both had strong hitting nights as well, as they both tallied 8 kills while hitting over .500. Jessica Byrnes and Hokenson both added 7 kills. The player of the match, for the second night in a row, was Kelly Bowman. Not only did Bowman combine with Taatjes to set Minnesota to a .306 hitting percentage, she had 7 kills, hit a sizzling .667, dug up 17 Yale attacks and tallied a career-high 3 service aces. Paula Gentil was great as usual, as she had a match-high 21 digs. Yale was led by Shannon Farrell with 8 kills.

The Gophers advance to their fifth Sweet Sixteen and six years and come home to face the winner of the Santa Barbara sub-regional. UCSB is the favorite to emerge off their home floor, but Georgia Tech is coming off an Elite Eight appearance last year and could use its experience to knock off the Gauchos. Look for a preview of next weekend’s regional, including a detailed look at the non-Gopher game, next Wednesday.