This has to be a blog first, at least for the Strib: A blog post on the Gophers’ volleyball scrimmage on Tuesday night.

Chip Scoggins, who covered the Gophers football team in recent years, regularly went to practices and scrimmages and blogged afterward.

I never thought I would follow him and actually go to a volleyball scrimmage, but circumstances dictated going. The U, ranked second in the Big Ten in a preseason coaches poll and 16th in a national poll, opens up this weekend with a tournament in Omaha and then goes to a tournament in Hawaii.

My chances of getting approval to go to either tournament are below zero. So how else to see them for a preview story on Friday and hopefully for a feature or two before the Diet Coke Classic on Sept. 12-14.

Somewhat surprisingly, I was not the only one in the stands at the Sports Pavilion for the scrimmage. There were 20-some folks at the start, half that at the end.

Some observations: Sophomore outside hitter Brook Dieter is going to be a force. The 6-1 Dieter easily had the most kills. Usually she would smash the ball to the opposite far corner. But sometimes, when she saw four hands above the net trying to block her, she would tip the ball over them. You can’t be too predictable.

Some of her smashes hit an arm or a hand, and the ball would carom backward off the far walls at the Pav. Crowds appreciate such kills, so do I.

Dieter also did well digging for balls and a number of times she would roll, backward or forward, after falling to the court. How does she make that look so easy? Was she a gymnast once?

Big Ten coaches picked Dieter on their preseason all-conference team. Teammate Lauren Gibbemeyer was the Gophers’ other pick on that team. Gibbemeyer is a 6-2 sophomore middle blocker and she was the other most impressive player in the scrimmage.

Coach Mike Hebert mixed his 13 players around quite a bit, but Dieter and Gibbemeyer were always on the same side, it seemed. Is that in their contract?

The scrimmage started with those two on one side with captain Kelly Schmidt, a 6-3 senior middle blocker, libero Christine Tan, setter Rachel Hartman. Those could be five of the first game starters. Also on that team were outside hitters Kyla Roehrig, a senior, and Pamela Luiz, a junior college transfer originally from Brazil.

All the games were relatively close. I didn’t really look at the scoreboard until the final game, which ended 25-23 with Dieter and Gibbemeyer’s side winning.

The scrimmage began with freshman Ashley Suapaia keeping a serve that appeared to be long in play.

“Aw,” said Gibbemeyer, a few rallies later when a kill by Kait Vatterrodt deflected off a teammate of Gibbemeyer’s and hit her in the face.

Dieter is working on a jump serve and gets an early ace. Freshman Ariana Filho has a jump serve, too.

Gibbemeyer and Hartmann team up for a point on a double block and then do it again.

Sophomore Hailey Cowles gets two kills in three rallies.

During the first break, Hebert talks to Hartmann, a senior, who is pushed hard for the starting position at setter by freshman Alex Blatt. Both are 5-11 but have very different styles. So says Hebert, not me. I don’t know that much volleyball insight.

Luiz, a 5-11 junior, has three digs during a rally. Opponents might want to go somewhere else with the ball.

Gibbemeyer, on a low set, gets a kill. This set was low probably on purpose because time and time again, teammates set the ball low for Gibbemeyer who usually gets points on her kill attempts.

Sometimes she seems to hit the ball straight down, with the ball landing maybe two feet from the net. How does anyone return those shots?

This is a full dress rehersal. A stats crew sits at the table. Two people with red flags watch for out-of-bounds shots. And a guy with a whistle stands on his perch by the net.

During another break, Gibbemeyer and Schmidt play what is best described as a game of pepper with a volleyball. They hit the ball back and forth in various ways, from underneath with hands joined, in a spiking motion or upward with hands open and fingers spread. “Nice game of pepper,” a male fan yells.

Dieter, Gibbemyer and Luiz start in the front line of another game. Vatterrodt and Ruiz are using a jump serve, too. Hartmann sets a player behind her — a little trickery. Gotta like it.

Almost every player on the U team appears to be long and lean. Or tall and skinny if you want a description in non-sports terms. Do volleyball players all come from the same mold?

Dieter and Gibbemyer combine o a block. “My fault,” says Dieter when Vatterrodt and Filho block a shot for a point for the opposing side.

Freshman Jessica Granquist dives for a ball. She is battling junior Christine Tan for a starting spot at libero. Tan was the team MVP last season, but that was last year.

Filho hits a spike into the net. This is a noticeable play because there are so few misplays like this in this scrimmage.

Vatterrodt hits a kill out. This happens more often, but most kill attempts land inside the lines or find a body.

Dieter digs for a ball and rolls over. Suapaia, a freshman defensive specialist, has her wrists taped for some reason. So does Hartmann. Maybe their wrists are sore from hitting so many balls in practice.

Tan has a jump serve, too. Teams in other parts of the country have wicked jump serves, most of the Gophers don’t jump real high and don’t have great velocity on their serves but at least they are working on it.

Dieter and Gibbemeyer takes turns, it seems, scoring points on kills in the last game. Dieter gets a handful of kills during the match from the back row.

Captain Schmidt, after the other side gets a point: “Let’s get it right back.” Thank good the celebrations are kept to a minimum after each point in a scrimmage. Hands are still slapped, pats are still given, smiles appear. But this happens quickly.

Gibbemeyer gets a kill for the last point of the scrimmage. Everybody shakes hands. Hebert talks to the team. All the players are wearing the same uniforms. All maroon, except for big yellow numbers.

He talks a long time. Then the players stretch: One, two, three, four, etc., the players count as they hold one position briefly before going to another.

My night is done. So is theirs. As I walk out at the Pav, I wonder who all those mopeds outside the front door belong to. Does most of the team ride a moped? Got to ask. Oh, there are several bikes, too.

Nothing amazing happened in the scrimmage like I hoped it would but I was glad I went. This was high caliber volleyball. Can’t wait for a real game.  

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Gophers volleyball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.