Gophers volleyball season preview: Big things expected for Keegan Cook’s team in Year 2

Gophers volleyball coach Keegan Cook knows more than his peers how much tougher the Big Ten will be this year with the addition of Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington, his former school.

“We should be excited for what they add,” Cook said, after being a step ahead of them after taking a similar path.

A year after his challenging transition from the Pac-12, Cook feels more prepared to re-establish the Gophers as a title contender.

He’ll unveil a deeper and more talented roster at Maturi Pavilion on Saturday at 3 p.m., when the Gophers play an exhibition match against Iowa State.

The Gophers are tuning up for a big test to start the season with four straight matches away from home.

It starts with the Volleyball Showcase in Milwaukee, where they’ll play Stanford on Sept. 1 and Texas on Sept. 2. Those two opponents have combined to win four of the last six NCAA titles, including the last two for the Longhorns.

“That’s always been a benchmark for our program to compete for a national championship,” Cook said.

Minnesota volleyball’s expectations haven’t changed since former coach Hugh McCutcheon resigned for an administrative role in the department two years ago. But last year, the Gophers were in danger of missing their first NCAA tournament in a decade with a 6-8 start. They regrouped to win 10 of their last 14 Big Ten matches.

Keeping the program’s postseason streak alive was a good sign at season’s end for Cook. Still, the Gophers finished 17-13 after falling to Creighton in the NCAA second round to snap a streak of eight straight Sweet 16s. They also had the most losses in a season since 2007.

“There’s a big difference between managing and coaching,” Cook said. “The first year felt like a good deal of management. And that’s not what I’ve been doing for my whole career. I’m a coach’s coach.”

Building a new culture takes time. Cook and his players made significant strides in learning each other even more this offseason, including a trip to Europe where they lost only one match.

“Trying to coach a group of kids you’ve only known for three months or six months was a unique challenge for me,” Cook said. “I’m really, really thrilled just about where we are 18 months later. The quality of relationships and the quality of volleyball we can now play because of that is something I’m pretty excited about.”

Fifth-year senior setter Melani Shaffmaster said the philosophies are not much different between McCutcheon and Cook. Developing chemistry with the coaching staff and newcomers has been the biggest area of growth.

It helps the Gophers to have seven players remain who were recruited by the previous staff, including juniors McKenna Wucherer, Julia Hanson and Lauren Crowl. Seniors Lydia Grote and Phoebe Awoleye are also two of Shaffmaster’s closest teammates now after joining the Gophers as transfers last year.

“I’m a lot more comfortable,” Shaffmaster said. “It’s good to have some people who experienced when we were with Hugh, how it changed and progressed. And now it’s nice to have some people coming in with an outside perspective and coming into Keegan not knowing anything different here.”

If the Gophers are up to the challenge in a new Big Ten and against national powers Stanford and Texas, fixing their offensive issues from last season is paramount.

In Big Ten play, the Gophers were sixth in hitting percentage (22.6) and seventh in both kills per set (12.68) and assists per set (11.64) last year. Just one year earlier, Minnesota was second in the conference in hitting percentage at 26.1.

2022 Big Ten Player of the Year Taylor Landfair, who led the Gophers in kills last season, transferred to rival Nebraska. But Cook added transfers Kali Engeman (from Georgia Tech) and Alex Acevedo (Oregon).

The U’s leader in kills per set, Wucherer, returns with All-Big Ten potential, and Hanson and Grote, an All-Big Ten second-team performer last year, could help her create a balanced offensive attack.

Grote was a Pac-12 standout at California for three seasons, but she said playing for the Gophers in the Big Ten gives her the opportunity to accomplish bigger team goals, especially in her final year.

“We’re here to win,” Grote said. “We’re looking for a national championship. At my other school, we were there to play volleyball and compete in the Pac-12, but this is just a different level.”