PALO ALTO, California — There are always six degrees of volleyball separation seemingly anywhere you go in our sport.
Friday at Stanford, well, everyone seemed tied to each other.
The ties that bind were evident everywhere as fifth-ranked Stanford swept No. 15 Ohio State after No. 10 Minnesota beat No. 6 Oregon in five.
Start with the coaches, where Kevin Hambly is in his seventh year on The Farm. In 2011, he took Illinois to NCAA title match, where the Illini lost to UCLA. One of his assistants on that team? Ohio State coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg.
J-FO’s ties went deep here. For starters, when the third-year OSU coach watched the first match, she saw two of her former Buckeyes play each other, Oregon outside Gabby Gonzales and Minnesota libero Kylie Murr, who happen to be best of friends.
Gabby Gonzales, left, and Kylie Murr
Among the players she’s coached on the national level was Stanford setter Kami Miner, who grew up down the Strand from Holly McPeak, who lives on Manhattan Beach and was doing the Pac-12 broadcast analysis.
The gathering was a reunion for former Pac-12 rival coaches and good friends Matt Ulmer, in his seventh year at Oregon, and first-year Minnesota coach Keegan Cook, who came from Washington. And, of course, they’ll be Big Ten rivals next year when Oregon joins the B1G.
Murr is from Yorktown, Indiana, just outside of Muncie, and will on Saturday be sure to serve to Stanford’s Caitie Baird, who is from nearby Indianapolis.
And speaking of Indiana, there was Minnesota senior setter Melani Shaffmaster, who is from New Castle, which is south of Muncie and east of Indy, and, who, with a braced right leg is better on one leg than most setters are on two.
“It’s OK,” Shaffmaster said with a laugh. “It’s fine. I have my other one. It’s just not as good as my left one … It’s manageable. It’s OK.”
Shaffmaster has been dealing with her knee since middle school, but more on that in a bit.
Minnesota beat Oregon in Maples Pavilion 25-21, 23-25, 21, 25, 25-20, 16-14 in a match that was all that and more, ending with the 6-foot-3 Shaffmaster crushing an overpass to give her Gophers a much-need victory.
“We needed that,” said Murr, Shaffmaster’s former Munciana club mate.
Minnesota beat TCU and Baylor to open the season, but then lost in four to Texas and this past Sunday got swept at Florida. Tough scheduling can mean tough losses.
“After playing Texas and Florida we came to California and had a good couple of days to work on ourselves,” said Shaffmaster, whose team hit .323. “We just decided we were going to work harder longer. I think that was the problem in our other games and it was time for us to focus on our side of the net. We have the scouting reports, but at the end of the day it’s our side of the net and that’s what we did a really good job of tonight.”
Cook agreed.
“You could feel our intensity and desire to want to win that match,” Cook said. “A great opponent and they’re going to compete in the Pac-12 and they’ll be playing late in the tournament. But that’s what the schedule was designed for, to find out some things about ourselves and I like what we found out today.”
Melanie Shaffmaster
Back to Shaffmaster, who wears a long brace on her right leg, and who can flat out deliver some sets. Against Oregon, she had 51 assists, four kills, a remarkable 18 digs — some while actually sitting or laying on the floor because once she’s down there it takes quite an effort to get because of the brace — and three blocks.
“A really impressive performance by her,” Cook said. “I’m really happy for her. Just great from start to finish in a really complicated match for a setter against a really great. She’s worked for this moment. And that last point was pretty fitting.”
You could argue that Shaffmaster is playing her best volleyball ever.
“She was in a good place to start with,” Cook said, “but she’s been putting in the work and she’s been extremely diligent and willing to be coached, which I think great players are. She’s been willing to be coached from day one. She didn’t wait. She took what she could from all of us and it’s showing.”
Shaffmaster, who has one more year of eligibility remaining, in turn gave a lot of credit to the new coaching staff and said she’s worked a lot with Kristen Kelsey, a former Michigan State setter who has coaching at her alma mater and Northwestern.
“I’ve gotten some little things in place that I hadn’t really noticed before,” Shaffmaster said. “I have different footwork to get to the ball, so it’s a lot more efficient. A lot of tiny things that people don’t see but the outcome is obviously different.”
The long brace, Shaffmaster said, “is super light. I can’t go side to side and I can’t bend my knee inward or outward.”
“She’s amazing,” Murr said. “That’s why I chose this team. I love this team and I knew what she was capable of. One leg, two legs, doesn’t matter. She’s going to play her heart out every single time.”
Mckenna Wucherer had career high of 21 kills for Minnesota, hitting .378, and digs with 10 to go with an ace. Taylor Landfair had 18 kills, four assists, an ace, two blocks and five digs. Lydia Grote, who may have more fun playing volleyball than anyone, had 14 kills with one error in 27 attacks to hit .481 and added an ace, two blocks and four digs.
More ties? Grote is a transfer from Cal, but her sister Marin played for Cook at Washington. Marin was at the match.
Murr was her usual spectacular self, coming up with 22 digs and eight assists. She was part of that well-documented group of four Buckeyes (in addition to Gonzales, setter Mac Podraza is at Penn State and Jenaisya Moore is at Tennessee) who left Ohio State after four years for new teams.
Murr, a VolleyballMag.com second-team All-American, filled the spot of CC McCraw, another big-time B1G libero, who graduated.
“I think they were surprised by how much I was going to push them and how much I’m going to expect from them,” Murr said, “because I know what they’re capable of. But they have accepted me, they listen to me, and they had to get used to my energy a little bit. But after that, it was seamless.”
Shaffmaster knew exactly what to expect and is a direct beneficiary, because more often than not, Murr’s passes are on the money.
“She’s a really, really good volleyball player and also has super good energy,” Shaffmaster said. “She’s able to connect with people really well, so people feel comfortable around her knowing that she has all our backs. If she has to run through a brick wall, she’s gonna do it for us. She raised the level of our play every day and every single play.”
One more Shaffmaster tie, by the way. Her sister, Mabrey, is a junior outside at North Carolina, an All-ACC first-teamer in 2022. Friday, she had a team-high 12 kills and eight digs in a loss at Michigan.
And, finally, one more volleyball tie: Cassidy Baird, Caitie’s sister, and Kendall Murr, Kylie’s sister, are assistant coaches at Eastern Kentucky. Cassidy, who played Denver, played four seasons professionally. Kendall played at Jacksonville and finished at Mississippi State. EKU is 7-2 this season after sweeping Georgia State on Friday.
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Oregon (6-1) got 20 kills from Mimi Colyer, who had an ace and 15 digs. Gonzales had 18 kills, an assist, two aces and 14 digs. Morgan Lewis had 16 kills, four blocks and a dig, and Kara McGhee had 12 kills, hit .429, and had an assist and four blocks. Hannah Pukis had six kills in seven errorless tries, 58 assists, two aces, a block and 14 digs. Georgia Murphy had 16 kills, seven assists and two aces. Oregon hit .262.
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In the nightcap, Stanford (5-1) overpowered Ohio State 25-19, 25-16, 25-23 behind a season-high 13 aces, five by Caitie Baird, who also had a match-high 15 kills. Baird had one error in 25 attacks to hit .560 and had an assist, two blocks and three digs. Elie Rubin, the other outside, had nine kills, an assist, two aces, a block and three digs.
Sami Francis had seven kills in 12 errorless swings, three blocks and a dig. Kendall Kipp had four kills but was surprisingly errant and hit negative .118 but had two aces, four blocks and three digs. McKenna Vicini had three kills and five blocks and Elena Oglivie had 15 digs, two assists and two aces. Kami Miner had two kills in four errorless tries, 34 assists, four digs and two blocks, two solo, Her team hit .302. And freshman Koko Kirsch came in in the third set and had aces on her first two serves.
Ohio State (3-3), which hit .127, got 10 kills from Emily Londot, who had five digs. Her teammates combined for 15 kills as Stanford held a 9-3 advantage in blocks.
Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Pacific, Oregon plays Ohio State, followed by Stanford-Minnesota.
