Coach Keegan Cook debuts at Big Ten media days as Gophers volleyball recruiting stays hot

Keegan Cook will step onto the Maturi Pavilion court for his first regular-season match as coach of the Gophers in about three weeks, but his official introduction to the Big Ten came Wednesday at volleyball media days in Chicago.

"A lot of gratitude to be at this event that I have heard about for so long, and certainly it has exceeded expectations," Cook said.

The Big Ten is trying to solidify its place as the preeminent conference for collegiate volleyball, and this season the conference will present more arguments. Nebraska has sold out Volleyball Day, set for Aug. 30 at Memorial Stadium, and has a shot at breaking the record for largest attendance for a women's sporting event in U.S. history.

The conference and its broadcasters also entered into an agreement this week that Fox will televise two conference volleyball matches across the country on an NFL Sunday. One of them will be the Gophers' match at Wisconsin following the Vikings game with the Packers at Lambeau Field on Oct. 29.

"There's a real sense of wanting to grow the sport nationally," Cook said. "And a real responsibility and a real interest from all the coaches. They're great competitors in the fall, but in the spring most of the conversation is about how do we take this game to the next level and what can we do for our players to have a larger stage for them."

Joining Cook was senior setter Melani Shaffmaster and redshirt junior Taylor Landfair. Both made the All-Big Ten first team last season, and Landfair was the conference player of the year.

They are leaders on a team that has seen roster turnover in the transition to Cook and his staff following the resignation of Hugh McCutcheon.

Freshmen Calissa Minatee and Sydney Schnichels joined the team at the start of the year for spring practice while transfers Phoebe Awoleye, Lydia Grote and Kylie Murr recently came to campus.

"I think Keegan has done a really good job of helping me become a better leader and understanding what a good leader looks like from my own personality," Landfair said. "Also I think just understanding my teammates more on a personal level so I can relate to them and help them throughout the match."

The past few months have been about how a new collection of athletes and coaches communicate, and other goals remain. Cook said when the season starts against TCU on Aug. 25, the focus will narrow because of a nonconference schedule that looks like the NCAA tournament.

"We want to know what it takes to win a national championship by the end of September," he said. "We don't want to be surprised coming into Big Ten competition."

Outside of the current roster, Cook and his staff continue to build one of the top recruiting classes in the country for 2025. Along with Carly Gilk and Kelly Kinney, the Gophers recently received verbal commitments from Jordan Taylor of Langham Creek High School in Texas and McKenna Garr of Rush City, Minn.

Taylor has been playing for Houston Juniors and is considered one of the top middle blockers for the Class of 2025. PrepVolleyball.com recently named her an All-America for her class and the No. 23 recruit in the country.

During her 16s club season she was coached by Tara Cross-Battle, a legendary Long Beach State star and former U.S. Olympian who is now a member of the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.

Cross-Battle described what makes Taylor, who at 6-5 is spry and commandeering at the net, stand out on the court.

"The first thing I see is the drive," Cross-Battle said. "You can tell that she wants to be at the top of her game. She wants to be one of the best, especially at her position."

Taylor said she went into recruiting without a priority school, but she knew what she was looking for: a top volleyball program that could develop her to play after college and a school with strong academics that she would want to be at even if she didn't play sports.

It wasn't until she committed to the Gophers that a new feeling hit her.

"Once that was finalized, once I said it was where I wanted to go to is when everything got really exciting," she said. "I got really excited about the future, about my 17s season because I can just put in work and try and develop as much as I can. It's the most exciting probably right now."

Garr has been a top libero for Northern Lights since she was 8 years old and fills a gigantic need for the Gophers, who haven't had a freshman libero join the team since Skylar Gray of Maple Grove in 2021.

A verbal commitment from Laney Choboy, considered the top libero in the country for the Class of 2023, fell by the wayside when McCutcheon resigned and Choboy signed with Nebraska. Cook and his staff were able to land the top libero out of the transfer portal with Murr, but she'll be gone after this season. The team doesn't have any other libero commitments for next year.

But Garr isn't worried about expectations. Last year she helped Rush City to its first state tournament appearance and made the all-tournament team as a sophomore. This summer she was a key piece of the Northern Lights 16-1s team that went to the AAU National Championships in June, lost once and finished ninth and followed that by tying for fifth place at the USAV Junior National Championships in July.

She said she has dreamed of playing for the Gophers since she was little and now her focus is consistent improvement and developing the mind-set that she can play at the next level.

"I know when I get to college it's not going to be a given that I'm going to be a starter right away," said Garr, who is rated by PrepDig.com as the third-best prospect in Minnesota for 2025 and the top libero. "You have to go in and earn it."

The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the event. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.