Gopher volleyball faces Wisconsin in border battle, Big Ten opener
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota is gearing up for the Big Ten conference opener on Wednesday: a border battle against Wisconsin at home.
No. 16 Minnesota the better part of last week in Green Bay, where they defeated Green Bay, North Dakota, and Chicago State in three decisive sweeps. It was a true team effort, as Head Coach Keegan Cook gave his non-starters time on the court, and proved they can all make an impact. Multiple players set career-high stats over the weekend.
"It was nice to see improvement from those guys. It was nice to run a few lineups that we had in practice and show them that you don't have to do something a thousand times to be able to do it on command. We're going to have to be pretty nimble in conference," he said Tuesday.
Now the gauntlet begins. The Big Ten conference — widely regarded as the most challenging conference in volleyball — starts play on Wednesday night, and the Gophers are fired up to face not just their regional foe but one of the most physical teams in the country.
The two teams have a long history: they've met 92 times, but No. 7 Wisconsin has won eight of the last 10 matchups. In the first part of regular season, Wisconsin went 0-3 against top-25 opponents, but they've since gone on a six-match win streak.
For senior setter Melani Shaffmaster, beating the Badgers in three sets at home in 2022 is one of the highlights of her career. In 2023 Minnesota played Wisconsin in Madison, so Shaffmaster has been telling the newer players, and even Cook, what it's like to face their rival at home.
"It's like, louder than a football game in here, and it's just a lot of fun. The fans are here to just see some good volleyball," she said.
"She's got me fired up. You know yesterday I told her to hang on for the speeches. But she'll have this group ready. That's apparent," Cook said, laughing.
The Badger team itself is similar to what the Gophers have faced before. They're familiar with the reigning National Player of the Year Sarah Franklin, who can seemingly place the ball anywhere on the court. They've seen the 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-9 block of Carter Booth and Anna Smrek. What's different this year however is that Wisconsin is relying solely on freshman setter Charlie Fuerbringer, running a 5-1 offense rather than the 6-2 of previous years.
"Charlie does a nice job of moving the ball around at tempo. She takes a good amount of risk off the net, particularly to the middles. So just making sure that we match that physicality with our blocking movements, that our eyework is really good," Cook said.
Minnesota is looking to continue the growth that they've seen over the course of the last few matches. After a rocky start to the season — despite a win over No. 1 Texas — they've swept in their last six games. They've made strides in their defense, holding opponents to a hitting percentage of .200 or lower for the last five of those matches.
But Wisconsin, Cook said "is about as physical as you're going to get."
"Kind of traditional Big Ten volleyball," he said. "Big athletes doing big things. We've been working hard, get our guys ready for that."
He's particularly excited to see how the middle hitters — Calissa Minatee and Phoebe Awoleye — handle that load. Minatee is the team's most efficient hitter this season, and has opened up opportunities for the offense thanks to her slide attack, which Minnesota was not able to use last year.
"We need to get her the ball more often in less-than-ideal situations," Cook said.
First serve against Wisconsin will be at 8 p.m. Wednesday.