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Gophers can't close out vs. Cal, fall short of Final Four

They led late in all three sets against the Golden Bears, only to eventually lose all three.

For the Minnesota Star Tribune
December 11, 2010 at 7:32AM

SEATTLE — The match played tricks on Mike Hebert.

The veteran coach has watched a lot of matches in his 15 seasons with Gophers. Seeing his team near victory in all three sets against California in the NCAA regional semifinals Friday night, then eventually dropping all three, left him with a strange feeling.

"It was a peculiar match," Hebert said. "I just felt all match long like we were winning. And then you look up at the end and we made a couple mistakes and we lose."

Seventh-seeded Cal had to dig out of jams in all three sets, rallying from behind late in each one for a 26-24, 25-23, 25-23 victory over the 10th-seeded Gophers at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

The Gophers' bid for a national championship ended in their sixth visit to college volleyball's Sweet 16.

"I'm extremely proud of this team for coming through what they've come through this year and playing as well as they have," said Hebert, whose team finished in a tie for second in the Big Ten this season. "It's been a terrific ride."

That ride ended for senior Lauren Gibbemeyer, a three-time All-Big Ten middle blocker whom Hebert called one of the nation's best players. She helped lead the Gophers to the Final Four last season, when they lost to Texas in the national semifinals.

"We had expectations to go all the way and definitely make it back to the Final Four," Gibbemeyer said. "It's always really upsetting when you don't make that goal. Like Coach Hebert said, we were right there with them every game. It was the crucial points, the end of the set points that really made the difference."

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The Gophers (26-9) led 24-23 in the first set, 23-18 in the second and 23-21 in the third.

Each time, Cal (28-3) dug deeper, and dug out the biggest points.

"It felt like we were winning the whole time. It really did," Gophers junior libero Jessica Granquist said. "I felt our kills, our execution was more efficient than theirs was. But they just kept at it, and kept being efficient all the way through. They were very stable. They didn't have many highs like we did. And they didn't have many lows."

Hebert acknowledged that letting the larger lead slip away in the second set was the crucial point in the match -- the Golden Bears ran off the final seven points in the set.

But Hebert gave credit to Cal for its resiliency and ability to make the biggest plays at the most critical times. It was at those times when the power-hitting Gophers uncharacteristically seemed most out of sync.

California coach Rick Feller said he felt both relieved and fortunate to get to the next round. But he said nothing surprises him anymore from his Golden Bears, who were Pacific-10 Conference co-champions with Stanford.

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"When Minnesota got to 23 points in sets 2 and 3, these girls had no fear on their faces," Feller said.

Gibbemeyer and freshman Ashley Wittman led the Gophers with 14 kills each. Setter Mia Tabberson had 47 assists.

"It was unfortunate that we didn't give our best effort tonight, but you've got to hand it to Cal," Hebert said. "They scored the right points at the right time to take the victory."

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RON NEWBERRY

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