Journey delivers Melani Shaffmaster to her final Big Ten volleyball match for the Gophers

Head coach and team captain got to know each other better last summer when Keegan Cook visited Melani Shaffmaster’s hometown of New Castle, Ind.

“I thought it was super cool,” Shaffmaster said. “He came to see what a day in the life of my household looked like. My family really appreciated it — and they were surprised he ended up coming.”

New Castle, about 45 miles northeast of Indianapolis with a population of 17,000, produced one of the nation’s top volleyball recruits and the state’s player of the year in 2019. That was Shaffmaster, a setter who committed to the Gophers in the eighth grade and stayed loyal to the program when Cook replaced longtime coach Hugh McCutcheon two years ago.

“You got to try to build that trust,” Cook said. “If that meant a trip to New Castle, Indiana, where you’re eating more food than you thought you could and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, then so be it.”

Cook can’t imagine where the Gophers would be if Shaffmaster, a senior, hadn’t stuck around to finish her career.

“She’s been Minnesota volleyball for as long as I’ve known about Minnesota volleyball,” Cook said. “Looking forward to sending her out the right way.”

At 6-3, Shaffmaster’s size at her position sets her apart, and so does her play. She enters her final Big Ten home match Friday night for the 15th-ranked Gophers (19-10, 12-7 Big Ten) against Ohio State ranked sixth in team history with 4,988 assists. No matter how this season ends, she’s grateful for the journey at the U.

“I decided to come to Minnesota a long time ago,” Shaffmaster said. “I never thought about leaving when the coaching switch happened. I knew Minnesota was the place that was going to help me be the person and player I want to be at the end of my time here.”

The only player left who saw meaningful time in the program’s last Sweet 16 season, Shaffmaster hopes to finish her career with another deep NCAA tournament run, but she already has had several big moments, including two wins against Wisconsin at Maturi Pavilion and upsetting No. 1 Texas this year.

“At the end of the year, you try to remember the wins,” she said. “You try to remember more the people you were there with.”

The Gophers were on pace to comfortably host the first and second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2022, but that changed after a three-match slide in early November, including losses to Oregon and Washington at home.

During that tough stretch, Shaffmaster expressed to younger teammates the need for a sense of urgency, saying “this can’t happen” again if the Gophers want to reach their goals.

“I don’t think a lot of people think of that because not a lot of them are leaving,” she said. “As of right now, we’re kind of focusing on one game at a time. But it’s hard to do that when you know the end is coming.”

Shaffmaster’s leadership has brought the best out of her teammates, most notably roommate and junior Julia Hanson. Arguably the Big Ten’s most improved player, Hanson went from being a reserve to one of the league’s deadliest outside hitters. She ranks in the top 10 in the conference in kills, and she became the first U player to get 20 kills or more in three consecutive games since 2021.

“Melani is great and awesome to play with,” Hanson said. “I don’t know if I’d be in this position right now without her. She’s always there for me and encouraged me on and off the court. We live with each other. We’re with each other all of the time, so I think that also strengthened our relationship on the court.”

Friday is Senior Day, and the Gophers will also honor Lydia Grote, Phoebe Awoleye, Skylar Gray and Elise McGhie. Grote and Awoleye were transfers who became elite Big Ten players under Cook the past two years.

Shaffmaster wasn’t able to play her best last season while dealing with injuries, but she established herself again among the best setters in the sport once healthy as a senior.

Asked what she wanted her legacy to be as a player, Shaffmaster said she hopes fans remember her for being loyal to the program.

“My loyalty was definitely dictated by the people I ended up meeting here,” Shaffmaster said. “I didn’t want to leave.”