Out & About: Minnesota./Iowa

#2 posting 11.18.2006
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

MINNESOTA 3, IOWA 0
30-21, 30-17, 25-30, 30-21

It was senior night at Minnesota and the senior exited the stage with a four game win over Iowa. Kelly Bowman, Megan Crumpston, Meredith Nelson, and Malama Peniata all received accolades and the heartfelt appreciation from the 4000+ fans in attendance. It may have been the last game for those maroon and gold clad veterans. Season ticket holders received a ticket form for NCAA playoff tickets. Minnesota may host on the December 1-2 weekend. Final decision on that will occur after the Purdue/Indiana trip next weekend.

The first two games MN had a strong fbso game checking in .704. They opened with a strong five straight fbso with two blocks and three kills, two by Nelson. The Gophers also had another string of five later in the frame. The only rotation that delivered points off the serve was Peniata's with five straight taking a 10-7 game to 15-7. Iowa's time out did get the ball back in the Hawkeye's hands. They did close to 17-14 on a 7-2 run. MN had a 6-1 run late to push the lead to 29-19, but Iowa fought off the inevitable for three more points.

The second game was much quicker with only 12 servers, the fewest on the night. Peniata again had the best run with 8 straight points taking a 14-9 game to 22-9. Liberal substitutions allowed Iowa some hope and they ran off five straight points late with three straight on Gopher hitting errors.

After the break the Gophers kept the subsitute players and the timing and rhythm was off. Passing was not clean, plus the serving game handed the ball back three of the first six serves. Minnesota did lead in this stanza, the biggest margin was three at 18-15. The game was tied at 22 when Iowa closed with a 8-3 run. The reason was that the Gophers couldn't get a point off their serve as Iowa's fbso game slammed the door on Minnesota seven straight times. Minnesota could not get the fbso game rolling coming in with 11/20 for this frame.

Minnesota went to the regular line up in game four and again started pulling away on Peniata's serve with a run of five points. Bowman added four more so after a 12-12 tie Minnesota went on a 11-1 run.

No word on why Kayla Roehrig did not play in any game tonight. Rachelle Hagerty filled in that OH spot all night.

Here are the Minnesota and Iowa releases. And box, we can't forget the box.

NUMBER CRUNCHING
team, fbso/serves--fbso%; pts scored, % earned, % allowed
Minnesota 38/61--.623; 115; .817; .393
Iowa 34/60---.567; 89; .607; .183
Minnesota will not have the luxury to allow so many points later this week in Indiana or in the NCAA tournament. Again MN gave away 35 points. They need to drop mistakes to 22 or under to be solid.

ROTATION POINTS
1 Tan/Fallon 18-19 .485
2 Peniata 32-15 .681
3 Bowman 22-20 .524
4 Crumpston 14-13 .519
5 Nelson 14-10 .583
6 Hartmann 15-12 .556
totals 115-89 .564
In the first two games Peniata's rotation had a .769 %. In the third game Peniata's rotation was like most of the rest of the Gophers--in the minus category. The only rotation to creep over to the positive side was Bowman's in game three (6-4).

Next up: tomorrow morning