Gophers volleyball ousts Southeastern Louisiana, advances in NCAA tournament

Betsy Helfand, Pioneer Press
Updated ·2 min read

For a team with NCAA title hopes, and coming off of two road wins against top-10 teams last weekend, Friday’s first-round NCAA tournament match was simply a matter of taking care of business against a team they were heavily favored to beat.

And the Gophers, the No. 2 team in their regional and No. 8 seed overall, did just that, dismantling Southeastern Louisiana in straight sets at Maturi Pavilion.

Minnesota pulled away from the Lady Lions in the first set, winning 25-21, took the second set 25-18 and capped it off with a 25-14 thrashing in the third set, setting itself up for a second-round matchup on Saturday night with Northern Iowa at 7 p.m. at the Pavilion.

“They hung in there. They scrapped. They battled,” Gophers coach Hugh McCutcheon said of Southeastern Louisiana. “That’s what you would expect in the NCAA tournament. But it was great to have … demanded of us this ability to have to stay in plays and keep going and keep grinding. I thought that was really, really good for us.”

After going back and forth early in the first set, the Gophers pulled ahead with four straight points, turning a 5-3 deficit into a 7-5 lead. From that point on, the Gophers never trailed — not in that set and not in the next two.

The Gophers seemed to get stronger as the match went on. While the Lady Lions held it close in the first set, and at one point late in the second inched to within four points, the Gophers dominated the third set after getting off to a 7-1 start.

“I think they started off really strong and I think we were good over time and then in the third set, I think we just kept playing good and kind of outlasted them,” junior Jenna Wenaas said. “I think we were just steady, stayed calm, cool and collected and just kept doing our jobs.”

Freshman middle blocker Carter Booth paced the Gophers with 11 kills, while Wenaas added 10. The Gophers finished the day hitting .316. They limited Southeastern Louisiana to .131 hitting and recorded 11 blocks.

The Gophers now turn their attention to Northern Iowa after the Panthers upset Florida State, the No. 7 seed in the regional, in three sets in Friday’s first match. When the Gophers meet Northern Iowa with a trip to the Sweet Sixteen on the line, it will be their last match of the season at Maturi Pavilion — and McCutcheon’s last home match as coach — win or lose.

“We know they’re good,” McCutcheon said of the Panthers. “We know that they scratch and they play hard and they’ll be similar in a lot of ways in style tonight, although we would expect them to be a little more physical. … We’ll have our work cut out for us.”

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