Gophers volleyball team, challenged by the new teams in the expanded Big Ten, falls to Oregon

Gophers volleyball coach Keegan Cook knew the road in Big Ten grew longer when it added four former Pac-12 teams this season.

He and his team learned so again Saturday afternoon, swept in three sets by newcomer Oregon at sold-out Maturi Pavilion.

The 12th-ranked Ducks won it 25-14, 25-20 and 25-21 on Alumni Day.

The loss came after the 14th-ranked Gophers’ win streak ended Thursday with a four-set loss to former Pac-12 team Washington, Cook’s former team.

Until the unranked Huskies came to town, the Gophers had beaten Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Northwestern consecutively — and they swept all except for the Buckeyes.

Then came Washington and Oregon, two teams with distinct styles that Cook called a “pair of opposites” but with a common physicality and West Coast leanings nonetheless.

“If you haven’t experienced it, it can be a little overwhelming,” Cook said. “Washington’s serve-and-defense was elite the other night. Oregon’s offense was really, really good.”

In each match, the Gophers were better in the third set than they were the first. But both times, it was too late by then.

“Both nights we started to figure things out and make adjustments and we were more competitive,” Cook said. “But if you haven’t experienced it, it’s a different animal.”

Now 16-8 overall and 9-5 in the Big Ten, the Gophers next play at second-ranked Nebraska on Thursday with six regular-season matches left. The Ducks on Thursday were swept by the Huskers before a record crowd in Eugene.

After Saturday’s loss, Cook described his players’ challenge.

“They’re students and they’re athletes and it’s never been harder to focus on those two spaces,” he said. “But right now the game is telling us we need to be more committed with what we’re doing. The game is telling us we need to do fewer things at a higher level, serve and pass and attack at a higher level.”

The Gophers’ win streak reached four matches before Thursday’s four-set loss to Washington, which Cook coached before he took the Minnesota job in December 2022.

The Gophers this week met two of the four new teams from the Pac-12 integrated into the Big Ten. They went to the other two — USC and UCLA — in early October.

All four teams left the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten and span the conference from the Pacific Ocean in the West to Rutgers and Penn State in the East. The Gophers entered Saturday sixth in the Big Ten standings.

The Big Ten has six teams ranked in the AVCA poll’s top 15. Three of the four newcomers are in the top eight in the conference standings.

Saturday was Alumni Day at the Pavilion, and more than 35 former players were welcomed back, acknowledged decade by decade, starting with the 1970s.

The 2004 team that was the first and only Gophers team to make the NCAA championship game — against Stanford — was specifically honored. Kelly Bowman and Paula Gentil were named first-team All America on that team that set a school record with 33 wins.

Cook calls bringing more than 25 former players back to campus these past two years invaluable.

“They share their stories and share their wisdom,” Cook said. “It has been one of the best things we’ve done since I’ve been here. Tonight is another chance to spend some time with people who have been in the spaces we’ve been. They’ve been in some hard seasons and done some incredible things. You want to be part of something that’s bigger than yourself.”