Gophers fall in five to No. 11 Hawaii

The Minnesota volleyball team shouldn’t have any trouble handling a Big Ten crowd this season.

The Gophers showed they were capable of playing well in a difficult atmosphere this weekend, nearly toppling the host team, No. 11 Hawaii in front of 5,500 fans before losing a close match in five sets. No. 12 Minnesota (5-1 overall) finished off the tournament, sweeping both Cincinnati and Wyoming in straight sets.

“They were prepared for the crowd , and dealt with it like a veteran team,” coach Mike Hebert said. “We did really well in that type of environment.”

The Gophers’ big challenge came on the first day of the tournament, squaring off against Hawaii right away.

Minnesota’s offense struggled, as did Hawaii’s , as the defensive play dictated the flow of the game. The Gophers picked up 14 blocks to hold Hawaii to a .208 hit percentage, but Minnesota managed only a .186 percentage.

“The defense was the dominant feature of the match,” Hebert said. “Both teams were pretty efficient offensively although the hit percentages weren’t very high.

“To me, the match came down to Hawaii’s very aggressive serving,” he said. “That was a level of serving we haven’t seen to this point.”

Hawaii (4-2) collected four aces to the Gophers’ three, but the strong serving helped keep Minnesota’s offense off-balance.

The Gophers handled this well, however, coming back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to tie the matchup, forcing a fifth game. But the fifth game quickly went to the home team, giving Hawaii the match, 25-22, 21-25, 25-19, 23-25, 15-7.

“We just hit the wall in the fifth game,” Hebert said. “We got off to a rough start, and in a short game like that, it’s tough to recover.”

Sophomore middle blocker Lauren Gibbemeyer had 11 kills and 10 blocks in the losing effort, while junior outside hitter Pamela Luiz added seven kills, and a team-high hit percentage of .357.

“We thought we could take Hawaii, and I think we could beat them in four [games] if we had another opportunity,” senior setter Rachel Hartmann said. “We were well-prepared, but the things that went poorly were things that usually go well for us. But maybe that’s good, because now we know how to respond to that, and we did bounce back in the next two matches.”

The offense looked much stronger against Cincinnati (4-2) , as the Gophers hit .296 as a team, with eight different players recording kills. Minnesota continued to play well defensively, collecting 14 blocks to hold the Bearcats to a .054 hitting percentage.

Sophomore outside hitter Brook Dieter led the way with 10 kills and seven blocks and sophomore defensive specialist Hailey Cowles added a pair of ace serves as Minnesota rolled over Cincinnati , 25-17, 25-13, 25-20.

Cowles became a major factor against Wyoming (0-6), leading the team offensively with 10 kills while collecting a team-leading 15 digs as well.

“It was fun to get a chance to go play front row,” Cowles said. “It was nice to get up there and be able to swing away, and know that if need be I can fill in there and still help the team.”

The Cowboys were held to a negative hitting percentage while averaging less than eight kills per game, and the Gophers cruised through their final match of the weekend, 25-12, 25-16, 25-12.