'U' Stays Home to Host Rutgers, Michigan State

MINNEAPOLIS -- The RV Minnesota Golden Gophers (8-8, 4-4 Big Ten) stay home this weekend for games against Rutgers (9-9, 1-7 Big Ten) and Michigan State (12-7, 4-4 Big Ten). The match against Rutgers is Friday at 7 p.m. while Sunday's matinee is at 2 p.m. Both matches will be streamed on B1G+.

RUTGERS GAME INFORMATION
Minnesota vs. Rutgers
Friday, Oct. 20
7 p.m. CT
Maturi Pavilion
Minneapolis, Minn.
TV/Stream: B1G+ - Emma Carpenter (Play-By-Play) and Jade Morrissette (Analyst)
Live Stats

MICHIGAN STATE GAME INFORMATION
Minnesota vs. Michigan State
Sunday, Oct. 22
2 p.m. CT
Maturi Pavilion
Minneapolis, Minn.
TV/Stream: B1G+ - Emma Carpenter (Play-By-Play), Hunter Bertram (Analyst) and Kyra Schwanz (Sideline)
Live Stats

NOTES TO KNOW
206 -- Keegan Cook won his 200th career game as a head coach on Aug. 26 vs. Baylor. His 206th and latest win came on Oct. 15 in a 3-2 win over Northwestern.
130 -- Minnesota had been ranked in 130 straight AVCA polls, dating back to Sept. 7, 2015, before being unranked this week.
27 -- Middle Phoebe Awoleye ranks No. 27 in the nation and No. 4 in the Big Ten in blocks per set with 1.33.
27 -- The 2022 season was the 27th year the Golden Gophers advanced to the NCAA tournament. The Gophers have been to eight-straight NCAA tournament's and 23 of the last 24.
16 -- Kylie Murr is one of two Big Ten players to post double digit digs in every match this season. She's done so 16 times.
15 -- Sophomore outside Mckenna Wucherer has had a breakout campaign in year two, leading the team and ranking 15th in the Big Ten with 3.27 kills per set.
11 -- Mckenna Wucherer has posted eight straight 10+ dig matches, including 11 of the last 12.
8 -- Melani Shaffmaster ranks 8th all-time in Gophers history with 3,529 career assists. She ranks 16th among active DI players. Her 10.08 assists per set put her at No. 18.
6 -- After playing eight ranked opponents in their first 12 games, the Gophers are playing six straight unranked opponents before taking on No. 19 Purdue on Oct. 26.
5 -- Lydia Grote has posted 10+ kills in each of the last five games, including an 18-kill match on Oct. 6 at Maryland.
5 -- Fifth year libero Kylie Murr ranks fifth in the Big Ten in digs per set through six weeks of play with 4.16. She's one of two players in the league to tally two 25+ dig matches in 2023. She had 27 vs. TCU (Aug. 25) and Maryland (Oct. 6). Murr has 10+ digs in all 16 matches this season.
4 -- Melani Shaffmaster ranks fourth in the Big Ten with 9.31 assists per set against B1G teams.
2 -- Minnesota ranks third in the B1G in conference games in service aces per set with 1.63. The 'U' has totaled 52 total aces in its eight conference games in 2023.
2 -- The Gophers are 2-6 against ranked opponents this season, taking wins over then No. 15 Baylor and No. 6 Oregon. The 'U' has lost ranked tilts to now No. 6 Texas, No. 17 Florida, No. 3 Stanford, No. 15 Creighton, No. 2 Nebraska and No. 11 Penn State.
2 -- Melani Shaffmaster has posted 40+ assists four times in 2023 (3-1 record).

WEEKEND PROMOTIONS
• Friday night will be the 'Dig Pink' match for the Gophers against Rutgers.
• Sunday is 'Alumni Day' where nearly 40 alums from five decades of Gopher volleyball will be in attendance. The 2003 Final Four team will be honored as well on the 20th anniversary of their run. It was Minnesota's first Final Four in program history.

LAST TIME OUT
• The 'U'defeated Northwestern (25-14, 16-25, 25-27, 25-22, 15-12) in five sets on Sunday to complete a 2-0 week of play. Four players had 10+ digs and three had 10+ kills, led by 15 from Taylor Landfair. Minnesota tied a season-high with 12 service aces in the victory.

GOPHERS UNRANKED IN AVCA POLL
• The Gophers entered the 2023 season with a No. 7 overall ranking in the Preseason AVCA poll. Despite being ranked 24th coming into last week and going 2-0, Minnesota dropped from the rankings on Oct. 16. The Gophers were ranked in the past 130 AVCA polls (2,965 days), dating back to Sept. 7, 2015.

SCOUTING RUTGERS
• The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are led by fourth-year head coach Caitlin Schweihofer. Rutgers is off to a strong start, with nine wins already in 2023. They won eight games overall in each of the last two seasons.
• RU holds non-conference wins over Virginia, Winthrop, Howard, Columbia and Marist amongst others. Their lone conference win of the season came against the Golden Gophers on Oct. 7. It was their first top-25 win in program history. RU is 0-4 in B1G play away from home and 7-5 on the season outside of Piscataway.
• Alyssa Nayar was named Big Ten Setter of the Week on Oct. 9. She ranks 9th in the Big Ten with 8.75 aps.

SCOUTING MICHIGAN STATE
• Michigan State is led by second-year head coach Leah Johnson, who spent her previous five years at Illinois State, leading the Redbirds to four NCAA Tournament appearances.
• The Spartans went 9-2 in non-conference play, but did not take down a high-major opponent. MSU earned its first and only Big Ten win at Maryland on Sept. 30 in a five set win.
• Libero Nalani Iosia ranks fourth in the B1G with 4.20 digs per set She's posted a league-best five 20+ dig matches in 2023. Taylah Holdem ranks eighth in the Big Ten during conference play with 3.82 kills per set.

MINNESOTA'S HISTORY VS. RUTGERS AND MICHIGAN STATE
• Minnesota is 10-3 all-time against Rutgers. The Gophers have won nine of the 11 matchups against RU in three sets. Rutgers took down Minnesota in four sets on Saturday, Oct. 7 in Piscataway for their only conference win of the season and their first victory over the Gophers since 1983.
• Minnesota is 58-18 all-time against Michigan State. They've won eight straight and nine of the last 10 in the series, including two three set wins last season.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Melani ranks 17th among active Division I players with 3,529 career assists. Her 10.05 aps career average is 21st and her 985 digs are 176th.
• With 15 more digs, she can become the fourth Gopher all-time to record 3,500 assists and 1,000 digs. She would join Sharon Oesterling (1986-89), Samantha Seliger-Swenson (2015-18) and Lindsey Taatjes (2001-04) on the list.
• Taylor Landfair holds 945 career kills and needs just 55 more to reach 1,000 for her career at Minnesota.

SHAFFMASTER SETS THE TABLE
• Gophers senior setter Melani Shaffmaster ranks second among all Big Ten setters with 0.95 kills per set in 2023. She's behind only NU's Alexa Rosseau (1.01 kps). After her is Indiana's Camryn Haworth (0.86 kps), Maryland's Sydney Dowler (0.77), Illinois' Brooke Mosher (0.68), Nebraska's Bergen Reilly (0.63) and PSU's Mac Podraza (0.59).
• A 6-foot-3 setter, Melani Shaffmaster ranked second in the Big Ten last year with 10.44 assists per set. She already ranks No. 8 in program history in assists (3,529).
• With 8.53 assists per set in 2023, Mel ranks 10th in the Big Ten. Her 9.31 ps in conference games, however, are fourth best in the B1G.

AWOLEYE BUILDS A WALL
• A senior LMU transfer originally hailing from Marietta, Ga., Phoebe Awoleye started her Gophers career with a 'bang' on opening weekend. She posted 16 blocks (2.29 bps) and five kills on her way to Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge All-Tournament honors. Awoleye had a career-high 10 blocks in the win over No. 15 Baylor as the Gophers silenced the Bears attack, holding them to .000 hitting.
• She now ranks No. 27 nationally in blocks per set (1.33), including fourth in the Big Ten. Awoleye holds 10 different 5+ block matches this season, a team-best.

DAVIS DOMINATING AT THE NET
• In her last four games, Arica Davis has registered 23 blocks (1.36 bps). She tied her season-high with seven blocks apiece against Maryland and Rutgers. She's posted eight 3+ block matches in 2023.

'U' HOLDING FIRM AT HOME
• Since 2015, Minnesota holds a 109-17 (.870) record at home. This includes a 36-6 (.857) non-conference mark. The only non-conference losses home losses during that time were in 2018 to Oregon, 2021/2023 to Texas, 2022 to Pepperdine and Stanford and in 2023 to Creighton.

SERVING STEPS UP FOR THE MAROON AND GOLD
• One of head coach Keegan's Cook's points of emphasis is for Minnesota to be a tough serving team to compete against. In their first six games, Minnesota had five-or-less service aces in each match (21 total).
• In their last 10 matches, however, the 'U' has tallied 75 service aces, an average of 7.50 per match. The Gophers tied a season-best with 12 on Oct. 15 versus Northwestern.

PALABIYIK PUTTING ON PRESSER AS A SERVER
• The true freshman out of Turkey hasn't had a ton of experience serving - having played internationally her whole life before this season. In her last four games, however, Zeynep has tallied six aces, including a pair of games with two aces. She's averaging 0.27 aces per set in the last four matches.

GOPHERS CLIMB THE LATTER IN BIG TEN CATEGORIES
• Through their first seven Big Ten games in 2023, the Gophers rank in the top-five of the conference in hitting percentage (.250, 5th), opponent hitting percentage (.186, 4th), opponent kills (11.66, 4th), opponent blocks (1.94, 4th) and service aces (1.63, 2nd).

UP NEXT
Minnesota goes to No. 19 Purdue on Thursday and No. 1 Wisconsin on Sunday. Thursday's match is at 6 p.m. CT on BTN while Sunday's is at 3:45 p.m. on FOX.

Upcoming Events

Players Mentioned

Phoebe Awoleye

Arica Davis

Lydia Grote

Taylor Landfair

Kylie Murr

Melani Shaffmaster

Mckenna Wucherer