2 weeks Ago
The Minnesota Golden Gophers volleyball team has played a lot of great matches already this season but Sunday’s effort was one of the most impressive. After falling into a 0-2 set hole on the road at Ohio State, the Maroon and Gold rallied to not only force it to a fifth set but come out with a reverse sweep of the Buckeyes (16-25, 18-25, 25-22, 25-16, 15-10). It was Minnesota’s eighth five-set match of the season already and the team is now 4-4 in those contests.
Follow us on Facebook Related: Goldy Gopher continues to show he's the best at Halloween The Gophers struggled all around in the first two frames. Offensively, they hit just .115 in the first set and had seven errors while the Buckeyes hit .
414. Minnesota had five more errors in the second stanza and was against outhit .219-.
429. Whatever was adjusted or said at the break worked, though, as the Gophers cleaned up the offense, improved their hitting and ratcheted up the defense, outhitting the Buckeyes in every set the rest of the way and tallying just 10 more total errors compared to Ohio State’s 19. Minnesota recorded 14 blocks as a team, marking the conference-best 10th time this season the club has totaled at least 10 in a match.
Julia Hanson paced the Gophers with a team-high 21 kills while Melani Shaffmaster went for 49 assists and eight digs. Phoebe Awoleye led the defense with seven blocks while Zeynep Palabiyik had 15 digs. Minnesota has now won eight straight matches at Ohio State, dating back to 2014.
The Gophers (14-6, 7-3 Big Ten) are back in action at Michigan State (8-13, 1-9 B1G) on Friday, Nov. 1 at 5 p.m.
That match will be streamed on B1G+. Related: Time, TV info announced for Minnesota-Illinois game Courtesy: Minnesota Athletics.
