Minnesota has taken 12 of the last 16 against Wisconsin inside Maturi Pavilion.
After six straight wins via sweeps over inferior opponents, the Minnesota Golden Gophers volleyball team was well rested and ready for their Big Ten opener on Wednesday night. The schedule intensity would go way up as instead of beating up on teams like Chicago State and North Dakota, the #7 ranked Wisconsin Badgers would come into the Pav. The Gophers were up to the challenge as they would gut out a massive five-set win over their rivals to the east to move to 1-0 in the conference season.
Wisconsin also came in on a six match winning streak after starting the season 0-3 losing to top-10 ranked teams in Louisville, Texas and Stanford. The Badgers had won 8 of the last 10 matches against the Gophers as they have been an annual NCAA Championship contender over the past few seasons. But Minnesota has had the recent success at home winning 7 of the last nine matches in Minneapolis heading into Wednesday night’s match.
The teams tried feeling one another out in the opening set. No team had greater than a two point lead through the first half of the set. Minnesota took a 12-10 lead after an ace by Lydia Grote and a hitting error by the defending NCAA Player of the Year in Sarah Franklin for the Badgers. But Wisconsin would then find another gear and take over ending the set on a 15-7 run and would run away with a 25-19 opening set win.
The Gophers battled back in the second set playing arguably their best set of the season. The Gophers jumped out early to a 7-3 lead. But nothing is ever safe against this Wisconsin team. They regrouped after a timeout to go on a 803 run to take a 11-10 lead. But Minnesota would not be denied. They finished the set on a 15-4 run to a dominating 25-15 win to knot the match at 1 heading into the break.
The third set would be a classic between the two powers. It as full of runs from both teams. Minnesota jumped to a 5-2 lead before the Badgers came back to get within one several times. Another mini Gopher 3-0 run pushed their lead to four at 13-9—the largest they would have in the set. The Badgers then went on a run after a timeout to tie the match at 14 al before the Gophers once again jumped ahead 22-19. But they could not finish off the set as Wisconsin fought back to take a 24-23 lead. Minnesota flipped the script with back to back points on a Calissa Minitee kill and a Julia Hanson block, but once again the Badgers would find another gear and finished off the set with a 3-0 run to take set three 27-25.
Minnesota had their backs to the wall and instead of turtling as they had done several times last season they fought back. The Gophers jumped out early again before the Badgers clawed back. Minnesota went from up 6-2 to just leading by one at 9-8. But this time the Gophers would go on their next run and would not allow a counter punch. Minnesota went on a 8-1 run aided by a pair of Zeynep Palabiyik aces and then traded punches to ease to a another 25-15 win to force a take all 5th set.
Shockingly the fifth set was more of the same. Minnesota jumped to an early 4-1 lead before a Badger timeout. After the timeout Wisconsin came firing and would cut the lead to 7-5 before a Hanson kill sent the teams to the side change with the Gophers up 8-5. Minnesota extended their lead to as much as 12-7 before the inevitable Badger charge. Wisconsin would fight off three Minnesota match points to tie the set at 14 all on the backs of an ace and a pair of kills by Franklin. The teams traded points twice with the Gophers again having two chances to finish off the match before the Badgers would claw back to tie. Finally Minnesota finished the match off with back to back points off of a bad serve by Wisconsin’s Devyn Robinson and a final kill from Hansen—her 15th of the match to start the celebration.
Grote led Minnesota with a season-high 17 kills and 15 digs while Melani Shaffmaster had 47 assists and 10 digs. Defensively, Phoebe Awoleye had five blocks while Zeynep Palabiyik had 24 digs. Minnesota gopt a great effort from some younger players with freshman Alex Acevedo posted a career-best 12 kills while sophomore middle blocker Calissa Minatee tied her career-high with 11. As a team the Gophers hit .250 for the night compared to .188 for Wisconsin. With the win the Gophers moved to 54-38 all-time against the Badgers and are 32-12 all-time at home against Wisconsin. Minnesota has now won 13 Big Ten consecutive home openers.
There is no rest for the Gophers as #10 Purdue comes into the Pav on Sunday. They will be a mad team as they started their conference season getting swept 3-0 at home by #4 Penn State on Wednesday night. The match will begin at 5:30 and will air live on Big Ten Network.