After witnessing key losses and coaching transition this year, Minnesota’s volleyball team is ready to conquer battles at the NCAA. Despite entering unranked brackets at the NCAA, Minnesota’s volleyball team aims to make a deep run in the tournament. Eventually, The Minnesota Golden Gophers, on the first round and the second day of the 2023 NCAA championships stood victorious against the opponent’s defense.

On 2nd December, the Minnesota Golden Gophers entered the arena to take on the No. 6 Utah State. Interestingly, soon after entering the volleyball turf, Minnesota’s volleyball team started to dominate the opponent team and made it to clinch today’s match.

Golden Gopher’s clean sweep

The Golden Gophers entered the volleyball turf, aiming to dominate Utah’s volleyball team, and with their stalwart defense, the Gophers clinched the victory. The recent tweet by Minnesota Volleyball shared the winning spree of their Volleyball team and penned, “And we dance on  The #Gophers get it done in round one!“

Soon after the beginning of set one, Minnesota’s volleyball team made it difficult for the opponent team to survive. In the first set, Minnesota’s volleyball team showed prowess on the court by scoring 25-17. Directly after winning the first set, Minnesota aimed to secure the following sets as well.

But, the match took an unexpected turn soon after the end of the second set with 25-14 in team Minnesota’s favor. In the third set of the showdown, team Utah State made a major comeback and took the lead over the Golden Gophers throughout the set. Eventually, the neck-to-neck competition kept spectators on the edge of their seats while anticipating a win for their favorite team.

Nonetheless, Minnesota Golden Gophers clinched the showdown 25-14 and 25-23 in the last two sets. On the other hand, despite of pouring all efforts in the third set, team Utah State was defeated by Minnesota with a clean sweep (3-0). While the enthralling showdown provided by the team was entirely because of collaborative efforts, a few players contributed high individual points to the team’s total. 

Gifted players leading Golden Gophers at NCAA

Golden Gopher’s team players passed with flying colours today due to an exceptional game plan. However, two of the players in Minnesota’s team were unstoppable. While Taylor Landfair recorded 11 points, Lydia Grote contributed 14.5 points to the team’s total. Interestingly, Utah State’s Shelby Capllonch gave tough competition to Lydia and Landfair as they had remarkable hitting percentages—.200 in today’s match. 

Read more: Penn State Volleyball Heads to Kansas to Kick off Their Highly Anticipated NCAA Season Against Yale

Overall, team Minnesota played well on the NCAA volleyball turf. While team Minnesota will be competing in the next round of the NCAA Championship, Utah State’s volleyball team is knocked off the same. But Will Minnesota be able to clinch a place among the final four teams at the NCAA Tournament?

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