MILWAUKEE, Wis. --The No. 18 Minnesota Golden Gophers open their 53rd season in program history with the State Farm Women's College Volleyball Showcase at Fiserv Forum. The Gophers will take on No. 5 Stanford on Sunday and two-time defending champion and top-ranked Texas on Monday. Both matches are set to be televised on FS1. In December,
GAME INFORMATION GAME INFORMATION
No. 18Minnesota vs. No. 5 Stanford
Sunday, Sept. 1
2 p.m. CT
Fiserv Forum
Milwaukee, Wis.
TV:FS1 Connor Onion(Play-By-Play), Emily Ehman(Analyst) and Michelle McMahon (Sideline)
Live Stats
No. 18Minnesota vs. No. 1 Texas
Monday, Sept. 2
6:30 p.m. CT
Fiserv Forum
Milwaukee, Wis.
TV:FS1 Connor Onion(Play-By-Play), Emily Ehman(Analyst) and Michelle McMahon (Sideline)
Live Stats
NOTES TO KNOW LAST TIME OUT 28TH NCAA TOURNAMENT APPEARANCE SCOUTING STANFORD SCOUTING TEXAS MINNESOTA'S HISTORY VS. STANFORD AND TEXAS GOPHERS RANKED 18TH TO START 2024 SHAFFMASTER NAMED PRESEASON ALL-BIG TEN, GOPHERS PICKED FIFTH IN B1G SCHEDULE TO TEST MINNESOTA ONCE AGAIN 'U' TRANSFERS LOOK TO GIVE GOPHERS OPTIONS WUCHERER LOOKS TO TAKETHE NEXT STEP AWOLEYE BUILDS A WALL UP NEXT
4,000 -- Redshirt Senior setter Melani Shaffmaster is just 27 assists from 4,000 in her career. She would be the eighth Gopher ever to reach 4,000. She's one of four Gophers in history to record 3,500 career assists and 1,000 career digs.
1,000 -- Lydia Grote totaled 10 kills to pass 1,000 career kills Dec. 1 against Utah State. She posted 727 in her three years at California and 282 at Minnesota.
215 -- Keegan Cook won his 200th career match as a head coach on Aug. 26, 2023 vs. Baylor. He'll be looking for wins 216 and 217 this weekend against Stanford and Texas.
42-- The Gophers are 42-10 all-time in season-opening games. They have won their last two season-openers.
28 -- 2023 marked the Gophers' 28th all-time NCAA appearance. Only 10 schools have made more postseason trips than the 'U'.
28 -- The 'U' clinched its 28th straight winning season with a win over OSU on Nov. 18. The last time they didn't have a winning season was in 1995 (13-17, 7-13 Big Ten). In the 53-year history of Gopher volleyball, the team has had only five losing seasons.
24 -- The 'U' made its 24th NCAA Tournament in the last 25 seasons, including its ninth straight, in 2023.
18 -- Melani Shaffmaster led the Big Ten with 19 double doubles last season. She has 59 in her career, the most of any setter in the Big Ten. She ranks 15th among all active D1 players in assists.
14 -- The Gophers have won at least one postseason match in 14 straight NCAA Tournaments. The last time they were eliminated in the first round was in 2007 (3-1 loss to Sacramento State). The Gophers are 27-1 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
13 -- When making the NCAA Tournament, the 'U' had made at least the Sweet 16 13 straight times before last season.
16 -- Phoebe Awoleye ranks No. 16 among active DI players with 1.24 blocks per set. She ranks 31st with 471 total blocks.
9 -- The Gophers have had nine straight seasons winning over half of their B1G games, dating back to 2014 (9-11). Minnesota has had winning conference seasons in 21 of the last 22 seasons.
8 -- Melani Shaffmaster ranks 8th all-time in Gophers history with 3,973 career assists. She ranks 16th among active DI players. Her 10.00 assists per set put her at No. 24.
1 -- Minnesota is looking for its first win over Stanford since 2021 (NCAA Tournament Second Round) and first over Texas since 2017 (3-1 win in Austin, Texas).
• The Golden Gophers finished 17-13 (12-8 Big Ten) last season and made it to the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The Gophers won an NCAA Tournament match for the ninth straight season and finished fifth in the conference standings in year one under head coach Keegan Cook.
• The program has had 28 straight winning seasons, dating back to 1995. The Gophers have won 10-or-more Big Ten games in every season except for one dating back to 1999. The program has finished in the top five of the Big Ten standings every year since 2015
• The 2023 season marked the 28th year the Golden Gophers advanced to the NCAA tournament. Receiving an at-large bid, the Gophers advanced to the tournament in nine straight seasons and 24 of the last 25 overall. As a program, Minnesota has had 28 straight winning seasons, dating back to 1995.
• Minnesota has hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament each of the past eight years and in 12 of the last 13 seasons (missed NCAA's in 2014). The last time Minnesota made the NCAA's and didn't host the first two rounds was in 2009. Minnesota went on to make the Final Four that season after traveling to Knoxville, Tenn., for the first two rounds before hosting Colorado State and Florida State in a regional at the Pav.
• In the first round of NCAA Tournament's, Minnesota is 27-1 all-time. In the second round Minnesota is 20-7.
• The No. 5 ranked Stanford Cardinal are led by eighth-year head coach Kevin Hambly, who has won two national titles and led them to three straight national semifinals from 2017-19. Stanford won 12 of the last 18 Pac-12 crowns. Last season, the Cardinal fell at home in the Elite Eight to eventual national champ Texas. They finished 29-4 (19-1 Pac-12) last year.
• In its inaugural ACC season, Stanford was picked to finish second in the conference standings by the league's coaches and placed four on the Preseason All-ACC Team.
• Middle blocker Sami Francis, setter Kami Miner, libero Elena Oglivie and outside Elia Rubin were named to the 18-player Preseason All-ACC Team. Miner, Oglivie and Rubin are all returning All-Americans for the Cardinal. Miner is a two-time Pac-12 Setter of the Year, while Oglivie repeated as Pac-12 Libero of the Year in 2023.
• The No. 1 ranked Texas Longhorns are the two-time defending national champions. They're led by 24th-year head coach Jerritt Elliott, who has led UT to top-10 final AVCA rankings in each of the last 18 seasons.
• Texas is paced by VolleyballMag.com's National Player of the Year, Madisen Skinner, a two-time AVCA All-American, two-time First Team All-Big 12 selection and last years Big 12 Player of the Year. Setter Ella Swindle returns after making the Big 12 All-Rookie Team and being named AVCA Southwest Region Freshman of the Year.
• The Minnesota connection on Texas is outside Jenna Wenaas, who played three seasons for the 'U' from 2020-22. She was a Second Team All-B1G selection in 2021 and helped the 'U' make two Sweet 16's and an Elite Eight.
• Minnesota is 3-12 all-time against Stanford. The Gophers fell 3-1 in Palo Alto last year in the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge. The Gophers last defeated Stanford in three sets in the 2021 NCAA Tournament and 3-1 in the 2021 Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge in Eugene, Ore. The two teams have split the last six matchups after Stanford won the first nine in the series. The two teams split the last two neutral site matches, with Stanford winning in the 2019 Final Four in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Minnesota winning at Oregon in 2021.
• Minnesota is 5-8 all-time against the Longhorns. UT won the battle last year in Minneapolis, 3-1. Minnesota's last win in the series was a four set win in Austin on Sept. 8, 2017.
• The Gophers enter the 2024 season with a No. 18 overall ranking in the Preseason AVCA poll.
• The Gophers have now been ranked in the preseason poll in nine straight seasons and 23 of the last 25.
• The last time Minnesota was unranked in a preseason poll was before the 2015 season in which they went on to make the Final Four.
• 18th is Minnesota's lowest preseason ranking since coming in at No. 22 in 2006..
• Fifth-year setter Melani Shaffmaster was named Preseason All-Big Ten. She was named First Team All-Big Ten in 2022 and to the second team last year. As a team, Minnesota was picked to finish fifth behind Nebraska, Wisconsin, Penn State and Purdue.
• Opponent-wise, Minnesota will play 10 matches against top-25 ranked teams in 2024. They'll play five matches against top-five ranked teams, squaring off against No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Wisconsin (twice) and No. 5 Stanford. They'll also take on top-10 ranked teams Penn State (7), Purdue (8) and Oregon (10). The Gophers will travel to No. 21 USC and No. 24 Baylor this year as well.
• Other teams on Minnesota's schedule that made the NCAA Tournament last year include LIU, Auburn and TCU.
• 13 of Minnesota's 30 matches will come against teams that competed in the postseason in 2023.
• To bolster their depth, head coach Keegan Cook and his staff added three transfers. Two of them came from Oregon in outside Alex Acevedo (redshirt freshman) and libero/defensive specialist Kate Thibault (sophom*ore). They join middle blocker and Georgia Tech transfer Kali Engeman (graduate student). Both Engeman (Excelsior, Minn.) and Thibault (Watertown, Minn.) return home after starting their careers elsewhere.
• Acevedo, who redshirted at UO in 2023, was named Idaho's 4A Player of the Year in 2022 by coaches in the state and was rated as the No. 13 recruit in the Class of 2024 by PrepVolleyball.com.
• Thibault played in 19 matches for Oregon on a team that finished 29-6 (16-4 Pac-12) and made the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. She averaged 1.34 digs, 0.31 aces and 0.08 assists per set, recorded two 10+ dig matches and established four-or-more digs eight times.
• Engeman played in five matches during her time at Ga. Tech, posting nine kills (0.75 kills per set), seven blocks (0.54 bps) and five digs (0.42 dps). She played in four matches in 2023, including posting a career-high five kills, two blocks and two digs on Oct. 8 at Virginia. She missed the entire 2022 season due to a knee injury and she has two years of eligibility remaining at Minnesota.
• A Brookfield, Wis., native, Mckenna Wucherer has been a key component to the Gophers volleyball program the past two years, but she's prepped to become a focal point as a junior in 2023. Wucherer will also be playing in her hometown this weekend in Milwaukee, where she'll have dozens of family and friends in attendance. She grew up a diehard Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Bucks fan.
• In 2023, Wucherer earned her second consecutive AVCA All-North Region Honorable Mention after leading the team with 3.24 kills per set (career-high). Wucherer also posted career-bests in digs (1.78), assists (0.28) and aces (0.08) per set while leading Minnesota with 22 10+ kill matches.
• She was named MVP of the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge on Aug. 26 after going for 30 kills, 11 digs and two aces on over .450 hitting in wins over TCU and No. 15 Baylor. She was also named to the Diet co*ke Classic All-Tournament Team on Sept. 16. Wucherer posted four double doubles on the season, including a 21-kill, 10-dig match in a five set win over No. 6 Oregon on Sept. 8.
• The junior was the No. 1 overall recruit in the class of 2022, according to multiple recruiting sites.
• A redshirt senior from Marietta, Ga., Phoebe Awoleye has been a revelation in the middle for Minnesota. She came last year after playing two years at Georgia and one year at Loyola Marymout. She started her Gophers career with a 'bang' on opening weekend after posting 16 blocks (2.29 bps) and five kills on her way to Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge All-Tournament honors. She had two matches with 10+ blocks last season.
• Awoleye ranks 18th among active DI players with 1.24 blocks per set. She ranks 34th with 471 career blocks.
• In 2023, she ranked 6th in the B1G and 17th nationally with her 1.34 bps.
• She tallied 15 5+ block matches and 6 8+ block matches last season in her first as a Gopher.
Minnesota travels toWaco, Texas for the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge against No. 23 Baylor and TCU next weekend.
