The Gophers women’s volleyball team saw their season come to an end in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 in each of the past two seasons. Julia Hanson personally made sure her senior season didn’t come to the same conclusion on Saturday.
Behind a dominant performance from Hanson, the Gophers punched their ticket to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2022, beating Iowa State in three sets (25-22, 25-21 and 25-14) on Saturday, a night after they swept Fairfield.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“It’s been an amazing four years here just with the crowd and every team that I’ve been apart of, so I’m going to go out strong, no matter what it is,” Hanson said. “I knew this was my last match here (at Maturi Pavilion), so I played hard and my teammates had my back the entire time.”
The Cyclones had no answers for the All-Big Ten outside hitter on Saturday night at Maturi Pavilion as she finished the night with 23 kills.
Hanson led the Gophers with 11 kills in the first set. It was a tight set, but one in which Minnesota never trailed. In the second set, during which the two teams traded leads, Hanson had nine more kills including four on the Gophers’ final five points. And in the third, the team’s most dominant set of the night, she tallied three more to cap off her performance.
“I just trust my teammates to be able to — I’ll go for it in big moments and I think I trust them to just have my back and yeah, I just try to play free,” Hanson said.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn a season full of adversity, Hanson has been a constant for the Gophers.
Minnesota has been starting five freshmen for much of the season alongside Hanson after injuries to four starters. Two of those freshmen, Carly Gilk and Kelly Kinney, added eight kills of their own while redshirt freshman Stella Swenson had 35 assists.
And yet, despite injuries and new lineups, the wins have kept coming for the Gophers.
“When the injuries happened, it was early enough in September that I thought ‘We’ve got time,’” coach Keegan Cook said. “I knew that some of our more experienced players would carry us through a lot of matches while the young players were coming up to speed. So, you saw it kind of happen piece by piece and in the last month, I thought the last couple pieces came online and it felt like a team that was ready to try and do something.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAnd now, they’ll try to keep it rolling in the Sweet 16 as the win earned the Gophers — the No. 4 seed in their section of the 64-team bracket — a date with Pittsburgh — No. 1 in the Gophers’ section of bracket — in Pittsburgh.
“I told them I don’t think we played our best match, but we don’t need to anymore, which is great. I thought Stella ran an awesome offense. I thought we fought off some amazing serving,” Cook said. “It took a lot. A three-set sweep I think sometimes doesn’t tell the whole story of just how challenging that was so I’m proud of our guys.”
Related Articles
River Falls rolls past St. John’s into Division III football quarterfinals
Gophers volleyball: Minnesota sprints to second round of NCAA Tournament
St. Thomas volleyball: Tommies fall in a first-round thriller
Gophers likely bowl destination: Rate Bowl in Phoenix
Gophers dismiss defensive line coach Dennis Dottin-Carter