The 16th-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers (2-0) defeated Texas A&M (0-2) by scores of 25-18, 25-13, 23-25, 25-22 in its second match of the Bluejay Invitational in Omaha, Neb. on Saturday, Aug. 30. With the win, Minnesota started 2-0 for the first time since 2005.
LSU moved to 2-0 with a win over host Creighton, its second five-game victory of the tournament. The Bluejays dropped to 0-2 in the tournament.
Senior Kyla Roehrig had a match-high 19 kills, three blocks and hit .441 (19-4-34). Sophomore Lauren Gibbemeyer (St. Paul, Minn.) hit .519 (16-2-27) with 16 kills and two blocks. Brook Dieter (Bloomington, Minn.) had nine kills and nine digs for the Golden Gophers.
Junior Christine Tan (Safety Harbor, Fla.) had a career-high 32 digs, and also had three assists. Rachel Hartmann (St. Charles, Ill.) finished with 53 assists, six kills, four digs and three blocks. Pamela Luiz (Limeira, Brazil) also finished with seven kills, 10 digs and two service aces.
Minnesota outhit Texas A&M .343 to .215, and had 62 kills to 58 for the Aggies. The Golden Gophers also outblocked Texas A&M 8.0-to-5.0, and had 71 digs to the Aggies 55.
Minnesota jumped out to an early 4-3 lead in the first set, but Texas A&M rattled off four straight points to take a 7-4 lead. The Golden Gophers answered with a 6-0 run of their own to take a 10-7 lead. With the score at 11-9, Hartmann delivered a kill and Minnesota scored the next point to take a 13-9 lead.
The Golden Gophers pushed the lead out to a six points at 19-13 after back-to-back kills by Gibbemeyer and Hartmann. Texas A&M answered with four of the next five points to cut the lead to 20-17 to force a Minnesota timeout. The Golden Gophers answered with back-to-back points, and took a 22-17 lead on Roehrig’s kill. The Aggies cut the lead to 22-18, but Luiz delivered a kill to give Minnesota a five-point lead. Cowles finished the set with back-to-back kills.
Minnesota outhit Texas A&M .256 to .143 in the first set, and had 17 kills to nine for the Aggies. Gibbemeyer led the way for the Golden Gophers with five kills, while Tan had 13 digs in the first set for a second match in a row.
The Golden Gophers scored the first six points to race out to a 6-0 lead in the first set. Texas A&M responded with three of the next four points to make it 7-3. Minnesota scored five of the next seven points to push the lead out to 12-5. The Golden Gophers expanded the lead out to 10 points at 18-8 on a kill by Hartmann.
With the score at 21-11, Ariana Filho (Monument, Colo.) delivered her second career kill to put Minnesota up by 11 points. The Golden Gophers scored back-to-back points to make it set point at 24-11. Minnesota went on to win the game 25-13.
The Golden Gophers outhit the Aggies .481 to .111 in the second set, and had 15 kills to 11 for Texas A&M. Gibbemeyer and Dieter each had four kills, while Tan had nine digs. After the first two sets, Tan had only one fewer dig (22) then the entire Aggie squad. Jessica Granquist (Blaine, Minn.) and Alex Blatt (Orland Park, Ill.) joined Filho in seeing their first action as Golden Gopher players in the second set.
In the third set, Minnesota jumped out to a 3-2 lead, but Texas A&M responded with seven of the next 10 points to take a 9-6 lead. The Aggies expanded the lead to six points at 15-9 to force a Golden Gopher timeout. Minnesota scored three of the next four points to cut the lead to 16-12, but Texas A&M answered with three of the next four points to push the lead out to 19-13.
With the score at 21-15, Luiz delivered a kill and Minnesota scored the next two points to make it 21-18. The Aggies pushed the lead to 22-18, but Dieter delivered a kill and Luiz had a service ace to make it 22-20. Texas A&M moved the lead to 23-20, but Gibbemeyer followed with a kill and Roehrig had back-to-back kills to tie the game at 23. The Aggies responded with the next two points to claim the set when Darla Donaldson and Kristen Schevikhoven combined on the block.
Texas A&M outhit Minnesota .385 to .258 in the game, and had 20 kills to 12 for the Golden Gophers. Roehrig led the Golden Gophers with six kills in the third set.
Minnesota jumped out to a 7-2 lead in the fourth set, but the Aggies scored nine of the next 13 points to even it at 11. With the score tied at 12, Roehrig sandwiched a pair of kills around a combined block with Kelly Schmidt (Champaign, Ill.) to give the Golden Gophers a 15-13 lead. Minnesota pushed the lead out to 17-15, but Texas A&M responded with five of the next six points to take a 20-18 lead.
Gibbemeyer answered with a kill, combined on a block with Roehrig and delivered another kill to put Minnesota ahead 21-20. Hartmann followed with a kill to close out a 4-0 run that made it 22-20. The Aggies cut it to 22-21, but Roehrig answered with a kill to make it 23-21.
Texas A&M trimmed the lead to 23-22, but Schmidt combined on a block with Hartmann to make it match point at 24-22. Luiz and Schmidt teamed up for another block to secure the four-set victory for the Golden Gophers.
Minnesota will play its third and final match of the tournament against No. 21 LSU at 5:30 p.m.
