Out & About: Minnesota/San Diego

#4 posting 9.2.2007
your daily dose of girls volleyball news & information

MINNESOTA gophers 3, SAN DIEGO Toreros 1
(28-30, 30-23, 30-24, 31-29)

A change in service order and back row assignments delivered the second win of the year to the #9 Gophers in a four game match with #12 San Diego in the Diet Coke Classic. First off Kelly Roysland is now in rotation 6 while Hailey Cowles takes over in the one spot. That wasn't the only change for those two. In the Ohio game Roysland was switching with Kayla Roehrig. Now Cowles switches with the big Nebraskan. Also Hartmann now leads Dieter in the serve rotation instead of Roehrig. The final change, and it seems to be more experimental at this point, is the battle on the right side. Rachelle Hagerty started and Kelly Schmidt came in for the opposite or right side hitter. However combined they had one kill and one half of a block, not a lot of points out of that right side spot. Even setter Rachel Hartmann had seven total points out of the spot.

As it was in game one San Diego had the early leads with a run of four early to go up 10-5 on the Tan (Jones) rotation. Two of those points were via Gopher hitting errors. The problem was Minnesota did not have air tight first ball side outs as SD was able to get points of 7 of their 8 servers in the rotation. SD again had a three point run, again on the Tan (Jones) rotation to make it 22-16. Again MN provided two points on hitting errors. After that MN was able to get their FBSO game together at the end with a 5/6 advantage. After a double contact by the Gophers, SD was on the verge at 29-24. That is when the Gophers had a run of four to close to 29-28. SD had to take two time outs to slow the momentum. SD was able to close out with a kill for a 30-28 win.

In game two MN started out with three straight fbso over SD and led 6-2 before the sideout on Brook Dieter's serve. Dieter was instrumental in a four point run on Gibbemeyer's second serve rotation with three kills. SD called a time out at 15-9 to try to stop the bleeding. In this contest the Gophers scored off their serve often as the SD fbso failed. SD only managed three out of 14 fbso in this game. As it was SD did close to 23-20 when MN took their only time out. The tactic worked as Roehrig put down a kill to get the big mo back to MN. Dieter finished point 30 with a kill.

After the "halftime break" both teams came out with tighter fbso. MN started off with eight straight fbso and led 14-8 at that point. The Gophers had one three point run in the run up with two SD errors in that sequence. The Gophers continued their movement toward 30 with SD changing their attack patterns to avoid the MN block. Also the SD passing was breaking down as their setter was scrambling all over the court. But SD also slammed the door on Gopher servers after a 21-13 Gopher lead. SD forced seven straight fbso and closed to 27-23 when MN took a time out. Dieter got the side out kill and then delivered the final point again to make it 30-24.

Game four was fairly tight early with no team gaining a solid foothold. SD did hold leads early at 6-3 and 9-6, but MN always scrambled back. The big break for the Gophers came on Tan's second serve rotation in the game with four points to make it 17-13. Tan hand a pair of aces in the run. SD still had some fight left. They also were able to squeeze out points on three of their next four servers. In fact they went on a 9-5 run to tie it at 22. The game was a high wire act after that. MN edged out to a 24-22 lead after a Dieter kill for a side out and then a Roehrig kill during Dieter's serve. SD again came back to tie it at 26. MN was on the verge at 29-27, but still SD did not go quietly into that good night. They tied it at 29. Jessy Jones got a quick kill for the sideout for point 30 and then put up the block for the finale.

photos: #1 Kelly Roysland about to receive. #2. Rachel Hartmann about to quick set Jessy Jones; #3 Jessy Jones finishing with a quick kill; #4. Brook Dieter reaching for the ball. photos by kja

MINNESOTA
1. Hailey Cowles, DS 2-0-0----2
fr: Kayla Roehrig, OH 0-3/2-18----22
2. Lauren Gibbemeyer, MH 1-1/3-12---15.5
2bf Christine Tan, L (see below)
3. Rachel Hartmann, S 0-1/4-4----7
4. Brook Dieter, OH 2-1/1-20----23.5
5. Christine Tan, L 4-0-0-----4
5fr Jessy Jones, MH 0-2/5-14----18.5
6. Kelly Roysland, DS 0-0-0-----0
6fr Rachelle Hagerty, RH (g1) 0-0-1----1
6fr Kelly Schmidt, RH (g 2, 3) 0-0/1-0----0.5
totals: 9-8/16-69-----94 points; 25 points on SD errors

SAN DIEGO
totals: 0-3/6-64-----70 points; 36 points on MN errors

BY THE NUMBERS
team, fbso/attempts; fbso%; points; %earned; %allowed
Minnesota 44/72, .611; 119, .790; .340
San Diego 39/72, .542; 106; .660; .210
Runs (3+) Minnesota 8, San Diego 6

ROTATIONS
MINNESOTA
1 Cowles 21-16 .568
2 Gibbemeyer 24-20 .545
3 Hartmann 15-16 .484
4 Dieter 18-17 .514
5 Tan (Jones) 23-17 .575
6 Roysland 18-20 .474
totals: 119-106 .529

Laurel Abrahamson of Bloomington Kennedy plays with San Diego.

If you want more details on the Gopher win check out their website and you can see a video of a Dieter kill and the box scores.

Next up for the Gophers will be a tournament in California.

Next up for me: tomorrow morning