No. 7 Gophers to Play at Wisconsin and Northwestern

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Gophers (7-3, 2-0 Big Ten) made it through an extremely challenging non-conference slate with five wins and three losses. Minnesota played five top-15 ranked opponents and came out 2-3, most notably winning the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge with wins over Stanford and Oregon. The Gophers most recently took down Michigan (3-2) and Maryland (3-0) to open Big Ten play 2-0. They've won six straight matches. This weekend, they'll put that winning streak to the test on the road at No. 5 Wisconsin (9-1, 1-1 Big Ten) and Northwestern (5-8, 0-2 Big Ten).

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Friday, Oct. 1
No. 7 Minnesota at No. 5 Wisconsin | 8 p.m. CT | BTN
UW Fieldhouse
Madison, Wis.
BTN Broadcasters: Connor Onion (play-by-play) and Salima Rockwell (analyst)

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Saturday, Oct. 2
No. 7 Minnesota at Northwestern | 7 p.m. CT | B1G+
Welsh-Ryan Arena
Evanston, Ill.

GOPHERS HISTORY AGAINST WISCONSIN AND NORTHWESTERN
• All-time, Minnesota is 52-33 against Wisconsin. Under coach McCutcheon, the Gophers are 11-6 against the Badgers. Minnesota had won eight in-a-row against UW from 2015-18 but the Badgers have won three straight in the series.
• UW won last year's only meeting, 3-1, at Maturi Pavilion, 14-25, 25-22, 15-25, 23-25. Minnesota was playing shorthanded however, missing starters CC McGraw, Melani Shaffmaster and Katie Myers to injury. Taylor Landfair led Minnesota with 15 kills while Samedy had seven kills and Miyabe had four.
• Samedy all-time vs. UW: 4-3 record, 69 kills, five assists, 77 digs, 18 blocks.
• The 'U' is 61-19 all-time vs. Northwestern, including a 14-1 record under Hugh McCutcheon. The lone loss came in 2014 (three sets). Of the last 15 meetings, nine have been decided in three sets.

GOPHERS IN BIG TEN PLAY
• Under Hugh McCutcheon, Minnesota is 134-37 (.784) in Big Ten competition. In his nine seasons prior to 2021, the Gophers have had eight seasons above .500 in conference play. In all eight of those seasons, the 'U' went 15-5 or better in conference play, with the best being 19-1 in 2018.
• The Gophers won Big Ten titles in 2016 and 2018 and have finished either first, second or third in eight of the last nine seasons.

SCOUTING WISCONSIN
• The No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers (9-1, 1-1 Big Ten) have been to back-to-back Final Fours in addition to winning the last two Big Ten regular season titles. Led by Kelly Sheffield, UW has a school-record 25-match home win streak on the line on Friday night against the Gophers. They haven't lost at home since Sept. 2019 vs. Washington.
• Despite hitting a season-low .196 at Maryland Friday, Wisconsin leads the nation with a .331 team hitting percentage. Fifth-year senior Dana Rettke leads the nation in hitting % (.554) and is a four-time All-American.
• Senior setter Sydney Hilley leads the nation with 12.06 assists per set. She has over 5,000 career assists.

SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN
• Northwestern (5-8, 0-2 Big Ten) is led by sixth-year head coach Shane Davis. He is looking to lead the Wildcats to their first .500 season in the Big Ten since 2014.
• NU is led by Temi Thomas-Ailara, who ranks ninth in the Big Ten in kills per set (3.54). She also ranks eighth in points per set at 4.21.
• The Wildcats have posted non-conference wins against Missouri, Loyola Chicago, UIC, Wyoming and Colorado State. They fell in four sets to Nebraska last weekend and in five sets to Illinois.

SAMEDY AND WENAAS COMBINING AS LETHAL DUO
• Minnesota opposite Stephanie Samedy and outside Jenna Wenaas have combined for 301 of Minnesota's 506 kills (.594). They've reached double digit kills a combined 18 times this season while Samedy has hit the 20-kill mark in six of nine matches. Statistically, they're the top attacking duo in the Big Ten Conference (chart below).

TOP BIG TEN ATTACKING DUOS (BY % OF TEAM'S KILLS)
1. Samedy/Wenaas (MINN) - 301/506 (.594)
2. Courtney Buzzerio/Hannah Clayton (Iowa) - 311/582 (.534)
3. Paige Jones/Jess Mruzik (MICH) - 290/546 (.531)
4. Caitlyn Newton/Grace Cleveland (PUR) - 247/483 (.511)
5. Sam Csire/Paula Neciporuka (UMD) - 305/597 (.510)
6. Temi Thomas-Ailara/Hanna Lesiak (NW) - 336/686 (.489)
7. Mady Saris/Breana Edwards (IND) - 315/656 (.480)

TIME TO DIG IT OUT
• The Gophers rank first in the Big Ten and rank 32nd nationally in digs per set (16.66). CC McGraw leads the team (4.82) while Samedy (3.71) and Melani Shaffmaster (2.70) are right around four and three per set, respectively.
• CC McGraw ranks fifth in the conference (39th nationally) in digs (183) and second in digs per set (4.82).

BLOCK PARTY IN MINNESOTA
• The Gophers rank No. 3 in the Big Ten and No. 12 nationally in blocks with 106.5 as a team and 2.80 per set.
• Ellie Husemann ranks 5th in the conference with 1.44 blocks per set while Katie Myers is right behind her at 1.17. Samedy ranks third at 0.83 while Wenaas leads all outsides in blocks at 0.81 per set.

LANDFAIR COMES BACK WITH A FORCE
• The No. 1 recruit in 2020 (Volleyball Mag), Landfair made the All-Big Ten First Team, AVCA All-America hon. mention and was named the AVCA North Region Freshman of the Year in 2020-21.
• After starting the first three matches this season, Landfair was limited for four matches after being injured late in the Texas match. She came back strong last weekend, tallying eight kills each in matches against Michigan and Maryland.
• She played in all three sets against Maryland, which was the first time she'd played in every set in a match since Sept. 1. Landfair had all eight of her kills in the fourth and fifth sets vs. Michigan Friday.

WHAT'S NEXT
• Minnesota will go to Michigan and Michigan State on Friday, Oct. 8 and Saturday, Oct. 9 for a pair of road tests.

Make sure to follow the Golden Gophers Volleyball team on Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok @GopherVBall to catch up with the latest happenings in the program.

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Players Mentioned

Ellie Husemann

Taylor Landfair

CC McGraw

Katie Myers

Stephanie Samedy

Melani Shaffmaster

Jenna Wenaas