Loss leaves 'M' spikers on NCAA bubble

At least they're consistent.

Going into the weekend's home matches against Iowa and Minnesota, the Michigan volleyball team had completed five consecutive weekend splits. Well, this weekend was no different.

After sweeping the Hawkeyes (2-13 Big Ten, 9-16 overall) on Friday night, the Wolverines (10-6, 17-10) fell, 3-1, to the Golden Gophers (10-6, 20-7) on Saturday night. The loss not only put the Wolverines in a fourth-place tie with Michigan State and Minnesota in the conference, but it also put them on the NCAA tournament bubble with four matches to play.

Errors played a big part for both the Wolverines and the Golden Gophers: the Wolverines had 20 hitting errors and three serving errors, compared to 16 and seven for Minnesota.

"It seemed like the block was big," said junior middle blocker Sarah Jackson, who recorded her 1,000th kill against the Hawkeyes. "Maybe that was a factor. People were trying to hit around the block and hitting out. Although, we didn't get blocked too much. It was a really disappointing match. It could have been our NCAA bid."

Although they did make some mistakes, the Golden Gophers had a much better match than last time against the Wolverines. When the two teams played on Sept. 26, the Wolverines beat the Golden Gophers in five games, thanks in part to Minnesota's 29 serving errors.

"First, we managed to serve the ball in the court," Minnesota coach Mike Hebert said. Last time they "really felt that we didn't give ourselves a chance to win. I thought we had a much better serving match.

"Secondly, we sided out with very good consistency. When you side out in volleyball, that's the defense, siding out and preventing your opponent from scoring. If you can side out, you give yourself a chance to win.

"Then we had Nicole Branagh swinging at the ball. She had a hot night. I'd say those three things were the highlights for us."

Speaking of Branagh, the freshman outside hitter had 25 kills and a .370 hitting percentage, helping to lead the Golden Gophers to a 62-kill, .319-hitting percentage performance.

"We needed to win this game," Branagh said. "Things came together in the first, third and fourth games. The second game wasn't quite the same. We came out strong after the break and really focused on what we needed to accomplish tonight."

The Golden Gophers pretty much dominated the entire match, winning the first game by a score of 15-7. The Wolverines came out in the second match with a vengeance and cruised to a 15-1 victory, but that was where the bright spots ended for Michigan.

In the third game, the Wolverines were down, 12-2, when they got a sideout. They then scored on a Minnesota hitting error and were able to put together a six- point scoring sequence, before Minnesota got the ball back and finished the game with a 15-8 win. The fourth game ended in a 15-7 Minnesota victory.

"We didn't do the little things that we normally do right," said senior setter Linnea Mendoza, who recorded her 1,000th dig against the Golden Gophers. "Our passing was inconsistent, which makes the offense inconsistent. We weren't in a groove."

Meanwhile, this loss leaves many unanswered questions in reference to the NCAA tournament.

With four matches remaining, the Wolverines are hardly out of the running, but the loss makes the next two weekends more difficult for Michigan.

The Wolverines play on the road next weekend against Indiana and Penn State, before finishing the season at home against Ohio State and Purdue.

"We definitely have to go 2-2," Michigan coach Greg Giovanazzi said. "2-2 gives us 12 wins. They've never left home a 12-8 team. We'd like to get a hold of Ohio State, and we'll let Penn State take care of itself. It'll be a tough match on the road. We'll play our hardest and see how that one comes out. We're not going to waste a week of practice this week on Penn State. We're going to go after Indiana, try to pick them apart and treat them like we did last time."

As far as the road ahead is concerned, the Wolverines have one goal, and that is to go to the NCAA tournament.

Although that goal could sometimes be a distraction from each individual match, the Wolverines know that without focus, there will be no tournament.

"For me, the goal is fun," Mendoza said. "We have four matches left. This is it. If I don't personally play well now, I don't want to look back and regret what I could have done. There's a lot more than just the tournament for me.

"We've never experienced it. We're hungry for it. There's so much more emotion going in. It's too bad you can't put the feeling inside other people. You have to wait until you're fourth year, four games away to realize the significance and importance of the whole thing."

11-17-97