Other Gopher Sports
As expected, Minnesota came out fast and rolled the Blackbirds in the first two games. While LIU tried to figure out Paula Gentil and the Gopher defense, the offense was busy pounding kills. Minnesota built big leads in the first two games, cruising to 30-19 and 30-12 victories.
In game three, LIU stuck with Minnesota with a never say die attitude. The teams stayed even before the Gophers went on a mini-run to take a 14-9 lead. The Blackbirds kept things interesting, getting within 22-21 before Minnesota slowly finished out the match. The Gophers made some mistakes in game three on the serve and seemed to lose a bit of their focus.
The Gophers utilized a balanced attack to defeat LIU. Erin Martin led the way with 12 kills with a .310 hitting percentage. Jessica Byrnes added 9 kills and 4 blocks in the winning effort. The players of the match were setters Lindsey Taatjes and Kelly Bowman, who not only steered the Gophers to a .312 team hitting percentage, but had 9 and 5 kills while hitting .400 and .625 respectively. Paula Gentil showed the girls from the Northeast Conference what a world class libero can do, as she shocked the Blackbirds with 25 digs.
Friday night, Minnesota squares off with host Yale for the a berth in the Sweet 16 at the Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis. The Bulldogs defeated Albany 30-28, 30-21, 31-33, 30-22 for their first-ever NCAA tournament win.
Yale (18-7) has been characterized as a very scrappy defensive type of time, similar to Minnesota. The Bulldogs, however, struggle on offense at times and have had their share of humbling defeats this season. The lone common opponent for Yale and Minnesota was Penn State, the Nittany Lions thrashed the Bulldogs 30-16 30-14 30-11 earlier in this season, while Minnesota split two matches with #2 Penn State.
Yale is led by two All-Ivy performers in 5’8 junior setter Jacqueline Becker and 6′ sophomore right-side hitter Shannon Farrell. The Bulldogs also have an impressive libero to anchor their back-line in sophomore Anja Perlebach.
While Yale has put together a strong season in the Ivy League, their offense woes will be magnified playing against the top-notch Gopher defense. Additionally, like LIU, Yale has issues with blocking which should hurt their chances against the Minnesota offense. The Bulldogs have a scrappy defense, but against a physically imposing team like Minnesota, they may be in over their heads.
Expect Minnesota to sweep their seventh straight match and come back to Minneapolis with a chance to advance to the Final Four on their own court.