Gophers volleyball loses to Texas A&M in four sets to open season

There’s no sports team at the University of Minnesota that plays a tougher schedule than the volleyball team. A good share is the longtime might of the Big Ten, and another has been coaches who have had a willingness to play big-time nonconference opponents to start the schedule.

Coach Keegan Cook’s third season opened Monday night at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls as the Gophers took on Texas A&M. The Aggies were rated No. 9 nationally in the preseason, and the Gophers were No. 11.

The Aggies fully looked the part with a four-set victory: 25-23, 21-25, 25-21 and 25-21.

“We’re a team that’s building,” Cook said. “They feel like a team that’s built.”

It was a solid victory that overshadowed Gophers freshman setter Stella Swenson debuting with an outstanding 39 assists.

The Gophers weren’t dominated, but A&M did have the dominant player in senior Logan Lednicky. The 6-3 outside hitter was a second-team All-American last season, and she was being talked up on the Big Ten Network telecast by John Cook as a probable first-teamer for 2025.

Cook left college coaching in January after his mighty run at Nebraska, where he won four national championships, and was the analyst for the doubleheader in Sioux Falls. It took defending national champion Penn State five sets to defeat Kansas in the opener, an extra-long match that pushed the A&M-Gophers start back to 8:45 p.m.

The Gophers’ status as slight underdogs increased when it was announced a couple of hours before the match that Mckenna Wucherer, a senior outside hitter, was ruled out with a back problem. She was named to the 20-player preseason All-Big Ten team, along with Julia Hanson.

Then, a problem that followed the Gophers in 2024 — mistakes on the serve — appeared again in the first set. They had four service errors and no aces as A&M rallied to win the opener 25-23.

The Gophers had some momentum, it appeared, with a 21-18 lead, and then A&M challenged there was a touch by Lauren Crowl at the net. The Aggies won the challenge and took over the set.

The lineup missing Wucherer had little answer for Lednicky. She had nine kills in 16 attacks. Swenson, the much-anticipated redshirt freshman, started what could become a family dynasty at setter, with 13 assists.

Swenson’s older sister, Samantha Seliger-Swenson, was a four-time All-American — two first team, two second team — during some Gophers glory years from 2015 to 2018.

“Redshirting is a real thing in volleyball,” Swenson said last week. “You can’t step on the court without it counting as a season.”

To which she was asked, how is it that football players can play in four games and retain eligibility, and in volleyball, a freshman can’t play a point?

“That is a very good question,” she said, pointing at the questioner.

Swenson had led the way in the second set as the Gophers evened the match with that 25-21 win. Hanson had knocked the air out of the ball with a powerful kill into traffic to make it 22-19. Then, a few moments later, Swenson made a brilliant little set back to Hanson, who again offered a right-armed bombardment to make it 24-19.

Swenson had 10 assists in the second set, along with a run of excellent serves that included an ace. And Lourdès Myers, the 6-3 middle blocker, gave the Gophers some power at the net. She is a transfer from Purdue and has stated it is merely a coincidence that her boyfriend, Drew Biber, now with the Gophers as a tight end, also transferred here from Purdue.

Lednicky received big help from Emily Hellmuth up front in the fourth set, which A&M controlled with a 25-21 victory.