#-1: Gopher volleyball (Re-Entry!). The most criminally overlooked sport in the world -- women's volleyball -- cranked up in the NCAA this week. Minnesota, ranked in the preseason AVCA poll at #16, probably won't win the championship this year. But I still love the sport, and I nevertheless am intrigued at whether or not they will exceed, match, or fall short of their Sweet 16 appearance last year.
Of the 14 players on the roster, eight are new; I did not know they had such a veteran team last year. Three of those eight are transfers. One of them is from Wisconsin-Green Bay, and the other two come from Santa Clara, which is odd because I can't really tell why they would transfer. The first thing I would think of is a coaching change, but the Santa Clara coach is entering his 14th year at the helm.
Whatever the case, I wonder about team chemistry with the Gophers. Overarching all of this is the interim title of Laura Bush, in her second and last season basically care-taking the program. I don't know if Hugh McCutcheon, who just took the U.S. women's volleyball team to silver in the Olympics in London earlier this month, will be breathing down her neck. But will the current team be playing with one eye off to the side? It is weird to what really is a lame-duck coach with so much talent. It could go south in a hurry.
But at least they won their first two games of the season, both played on Saturday, in Harrisonburg, Va. They actually lost the first six points of their game and dropped the second set against host and James Madison Invitational namesake, but won in four sets. They then blitzed Appalachian St. in the nightcap, 10-14-19.
That's great to see them go 2-0, but I'm very surprised at the low caliber of competition the U. is playing to start off the year. They began last year participating in the prestigious AVCA Showcase and then hosted Texas for a special two-game series Diet Coke Classic. Now they're beating up on James Madison and Appalachian St.? Is this to pad their record or because Bush doesn't believe this team can stand up to the titans of the college volleyball world? The answer to that won't get any clearer when the Diet Coke Classic is held at the Sports Pavilion starting on Friday; the other teams in the tournament are Long Island, Miami of Ohio and Albany.
#-2: Gopher soccer (Last Week: -2). Fast starts and late collapses are becoming an unfortunate hallmark of this team. As they did in their season opener against Florida St., the Goofs got up 2-0 on at San Diego Friday night, only to surrender two second-half goals and then, in double overtime, lose the game on a corner kick. Killer stat: The Toreros scored two converted on their five corners while the Goofs didn't score once off any of their 11.
But at least they won a game. Go back to Sunday afternoon, where striker Taylor Uhl gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead on then-24th-ranked South Carolina at Robbie Stadium. (Including the Seminole and Toreros games, Uhl has now scored within the first 20 minutes of all her team's contests so far this season.) But mere seconds before halftime, a Gamecock rush and shot by Lani Smith hit off U. Goalkeeper Cat Parkill's hands, and the ball crossed the goal line just before the clock struck zeroes.
It was a horrible way to cough up a lead, but they didn't let in the game-loser in the second half. In fact, just before the end of the first 10 minutes of extra time, a cross in the box founds its way from Haley Helverson's foot past 'Cocks Goalkeep Darien Vercillo (who's the backup; the regular 'keeper is Sabrina D'Angelo, but she currently has duties playing for Canada in the Under-20 Women's World Cup) for the win. Minnesota has now beaten South Carolina, the defending SEC regular season champions, the two times they have ever met, both when the Gamecocks were ranked in the Top 25.
They travel to my alma mater, USC (which has its own pitch, McAlister Field, which was built the year after I left) to play a game this (Sunday) afternoon. They then come home and play an early Labor Weekend game Thursday against Bowling Green.
#-3: Twins (Last Week: -1). No, they didn't lose every game this screening week; it only feels like they did. They did open the week losing to Seattle (and thus completing getting swept), and they have lost five in a row to end the week. Only a 7-2 "eruption" Monday in Oakland prevented this from being an 0-7 whitewash.
Nevertheless, they have lost 10-of-11 and, ick!, 14 out of their last 16 games. And the losses this week haven't fucking even been close -- 5-1, 4-1, 5-1, 10-6, 8-0, and 9-3. Those last three games were in Texas, so this very clearly is a case of a vastly superior team giving the Twinks a little bit of prison sex. But even despite seeing Scott Diamond, the team's best pitcher this year, get thrown out of the game for inaccurately throwing a payback pitch near the head of Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton (after a frustrated Roy Oswalt buzzed a Twink the half-inning before), and then seeing Manager Ron Gardenhire run out of the dugout to argue with plate umpire Wally Bell before he too got tossed, it is obvious that this team has quit. And that should piss off any Twins fan, any Minnesota sports fan, and any Twin Cities taxpayer whose money was taken to build this joke of a franchise a brand-new stadium they said would ensure they would compete for World Series titles in the future.
They'll try to avoid a four-game sweep at the hands of The Bastard Washington Senators v.2.0, then come home to Target Field (no, don't come back!) to play four with Seattle, then immediately hit the road again and be Kansas City's opponent over the weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment