Minnesota Golden Gophers 2024

[zero-rotation outside hitter]

It is overwhelmingly apparent how much more solid of a team MN is with Acevedo playing back row for Wucherer.

Also, what a season for Julia Hanson. After the MI match she's hitting .270 (for season) in the best conference in the country. Would be robbery if she doesn't secure 2nd-team AA at this point.

[vonner]

At one point in the third set Juila was rubbing her left elbow after a block and I nearly went into a panic. It was the left, but still. If they lose her they are toast.

[douglass9]

Hanson performance reminded me of Samedy. Can you believe 7 aces from Acevedo. It seemed the long runs we had Grote and Hanson on the front.

[volleysota]

Nov 17, 2024 15:00:40 GMT -5 maigrey said:

Nov 17, 2024 14:45:29 GMT -5 volleysota said:

They can minimize it, but as a fierce float server, I will still take the modern moltens over the super touch 12 times out of 10. A good float server can still make the moltens and other textured volleyballs break in nasty ways. It took one pass of an errant super touch during gopher warm ups today to remind me why we don’t use them in my leagues or where I coach.

Can you expound on this? I'm curious, as I can't serve and thus would like to understand more.

As far as preference in ball? In my experience, everything else is so much better with the molten (or other type) volleyballs that I'm willing to take a slight dip in float effectiveness with them. I've found that passing sucks with the super touch balls since they're usually hard as a rock, setting sucks because they're so slippery, and I'm not a fan of hitting or blocking with them either.

In temrs of serving itself, to get a float, you want to contact the exact middle of the ball to get the float. It's easier to do with a smoother ball like the super touch. With a textured ball like the moltens, you can still contact the middle, but the ridges on the ball will give some variance even if your location is spot on. In addition, if you're attempting to float you don't want to snap your wrist (I know, I know, the zealots at the church of fundamentals and technique are grabbing their torches and pitchforks because I said don't snap your wrist). Contacting somewhere other than the middle will put spin on the ball and reduce or eliminate the likelihood that you'll get the float/knuckleball action that you're trying to achieve.

[GoGophs]

Great serving from Mghie and Acevedo today

Agreed that Acevedo should at the very least play back row for Wuchs

Some very odd hitting errors in set 2… I wonder if they were working on something

Even though we don’t know exactly what would’ve happened, it’s crazy to think that if Hugh had stayed Hanson would seemingly be 4th in line on the depth chart behind TayLa, Wuchs and Wenaas… such a fun player to watch and has become more and more consistent

[skolgophers]

Wasn’t able to engage in the match thread since I was watching this on my phone and the Vikings on TV. Sundays are tough.

Anyways, Hanson is HER. Acevedo has 10000% earned her spot playing 3 rotations. Wucherer looks more solid focusing on the front row. Mcghie = permanent serving sub. Even though Schnichels only got in for a couple of points, I’m speculating that maybe she is moving up the depth chart ahead of Crowl? And finally, thank you Keegan for finally seeing what all the fans were.

And yes, I know Michigan is slumping, but they still are a decent team with good servers, and they handled it well. I think only a pair of aces???

[gogophers]

Nov 17, 2024 18:51:01 GMT -5 zero-rotation outside hitter said:

It is overwhelmingly apparent how much more solid of a team MN is with Acevedo playing back row for Wucherer.

Also, what a season for Julia Hanson. After the MI match she's hitting .270 (for season) in the best conference in the country. Would be robbery if she doesn't secure 2nd-team AA at this point.

.289 in said best conference, behind only Franklin and Hudson in hitting percentage among pin hitters. By the way, Phoebe is first, and by almost .4 b/s in blocks/set, in conference. Uh-oh. I hope I haven't jinxed these two, who are having outstanding seasons.

[pavsec5row10]

Serving Stats after today's match:

Player	ATT	Pts Won	Pts Lost	Pct	Ace	SE	K	HE	Blk	Opp K	Opp E
Chloe Ng	27	18	9	.667	3	4	8	0	1	5	6
Alex Acevedo	361	199	162	.551	29	18	87	22	38	122	46
Lydia Grote	318	153	165	.481	27	37	80	28	20	100	26
Elise McGhie	205	94	111	.459	12	8	33	17	20	86	29
Melani Shaffmaster	358	163	195	.455	21	32	70	21	38	141	34
Julia Hanson	318	142	176	.447	26	38	64	30	21	109	30
Zeynep Palabiyik	347	150	197	.432	12	26	70	26	36	147	29
Skylar Gray	67	28	39	.418	8	12	8	2	4	27	6
Mckenna Wucherer	49	20	29	.408	5	16	7	0	1	13	8
Kate Thibault	25	10	15	.400	0	6	3	1	3	9	3
Lauren Crowl	85	28	57	.329	5	7	11	6	4	44	7
Calissa Minatee	22	6	16	.273	1	6	1	3	0	8	3
TOTALS	2,182	1,011	1,171	.463	149	210	442	156	186	811	227

[mcmike]

in progress
Holy Shimoley Alex                                 Michigan
                              att ptwin pt loss pct
Alex Acevedo 361 199 162 .551 34    26   8      .765 Never ever seen anything like this
Lydia Grote  318 153 165 .481 14     6   8      .429 
Elise McGhie 205  94 111 .459 17    10   7      .588 SOLID don't know how many MI points were FBSOs
Mel Shaffmst 358 163 195 .455  7     1   6           starting in ro2 Shaff is last to serve
Julia Hanson 318 142 176 .447  9     1   8           superhuman at net, not good behind the line
Z    Plabyk  347 150 197 .432 17     8   9      .470 improvement and looked like better floats     

                              98    52          .531 

McGhie's role as SS should now be hers to lose
as mentioned in the game thread you need to win points on your serve to avoid random set losses marked by sideout city

in the set we lost we sided out over 60% and were only  blocked once so 15 kills and 12 HEs seems like an anomaly.  Something was tweaked in the hitting approach for set 2 by the coaches?  I wish an inquiring reporter could tease out what changed.

Set K  E TA  Pct Sideout Pct
1  16  1 24 .625  8-8 100%
2  15 13 55 .036 16-26 61%
3  15  0 33 .455 11-17 64%
4  17  1 30 .533 12-16 75%

[clob]

I honestly can't figure out the Gopher serving. Some matches they do insanely well with it and others, it's a non-factor.

It's not just the quality of the opponent. It's just very bizarre.

[volleysota]

Nov 17, 2024 21:46:34 GMT -5 pavsec5row10 said:

Serving Stats after today's match:

Player	ATT	Pts Won	Pts Lost	Pct	Ace	SE	K	HE	Blk	Opp K	Opp E
Chloe Ng	27	18	9	.667	3	4	8	0	1	5	6
Alex Acevedo	321	199	162	.620	29	18	87	22	38	122	46
Lydia Grote	318	153	165	.481	27	37	80	28	20	100	26
Elise McGhie	205	94	111	.459	12	8	33	17	20	86	29
Melani Shaffmaster	358	163	195	.455	21	32	70	21	38	141	34
Julia Hanson	318	142	176	.447	26	38	64	30	21	109	30
Zeynep Palabiyik	347	150	197	.432	12	26	70	26	36	147	29
Skylar Gray	67	28	39	.418	8	12	8	2	4	27	6
Mckenna Wucherer	49	20	29	.408	5	16	7	0	1	13	8
Kate Thibault	25	10	15	.400	0	6	3	1	3	9	3
Lauren Crowl	85	28	57	.329	5	7	11	6	4	44	7
Calissa Minatee	22	6	16	.273	1	6	1	3	0	8	3
TOTALS	2,142	1,011	1,171	.472	149	210	442	156	186	811	227

I'll add another one on for you, for those curious - Serving percentage (Efficiency). It's basically hitting percentage but for serving.

Player	Serves	S%
Alex Acevedo	321	.0343
Elise McGhie	205	.0195
Lauren Crowl	85	-.0235
Melani Shaffmaster	358	-.0307
Lydia Grote	318	-.0314
Chloe Ng	27	-.0370
Julia Hanson	318	-.0377
Zeynep Palabiyik	347	-.0403
Skylar Gray	67	-.0597
McKenna Wucherer	49	-.2245
Calissa Minatee	22	-.2272
Kate Thibault	25	-.2400

Take whatever conclusions you'd like from these numbers. The obvious takeaways are that the bottom three basically have a 1/5 chance of serving into the net or out... Also that 1 in every 30 times Alex goes back to serve it's going to be an ace.

[mcmike]

what is the calculation that produces S%

[GoGophs]

"You're watching someone come into their own in real time," said head coach Keegan Cook. "Growth is the most enjoyable part of this process, and she continues to learn and be coached. She has every reason to be confident, she's done the work."

Really like this quote about Hanson after today’s match, she’s a great example of an athlete with a natural ability being developed and noticeably making strides right in front of us. Makes me excited for this ‘25 recruiting class and watching them grow!

[volleysota]

Nov 17, 2024 22:44:50 GMT -5 mcmike said:

what is the calculation that produces S%

It’s basically the same as hitting percentage.

(Aces - Serve Errors) / Serve Attempts

[JT]

Nov 17, 2024 23:29:23 GMT -5 volleysota said:

Nov 17, 2024 22:44:50 GMT -5 mcmike said:

what is the calculation that produces S%

It’s basically the same as hitting percentage.

(Aces - Serve Errors) / Serve Attempts

It definitely removes a lot of non-server influence, by taking out anything good (or bad) in points-scored that comes from who’s up front (and who’s digging for that matter), but I wonder if it removes too much? A good serve that can’t be passed well, or one that removes opponent hitting options due to placement, should be counted in more than the denominator.